SNS seminar in Iceland

Most Finns want to travel to hot and sunny regions whenever possible, but I like cool places even more. So when the opportunity to participate SNS forest inventory seminar in Egilsstaðir, East Iceland, emerged in last winter, there was no reason to hesitate. Even though our Joensuu university delegation’s pre-journey feelings suggested that this trip should probably be classified as “scientific tourism”, the official part of the programme included many interesting presentations about NFI and laser scanning topics. Also the country reports gave a clear view of the related research in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Highlight of my own presentation was the international revelation of the crown relascope, a new instrument for canopy cover measurements. Still, when the last “never-ending” session was finally finished, everyone was quite happy to get out of the auditorium to really see Iceland.

An old Icelandic joke reveals an answer to the question ”What do you do if you get lost in an Icelandic forest? Just stand up”. It soon became clear that the modern Icelandic foresters don’t much like this joke. After visiting several forests near Egilsstaðir and Akureyri it became clear that they have a good reason to be proud of their success in increasing forest cover in a rather hostile environment. When the first tree in the country reached 20 meters height, the prime minister solemnly placed a memorial plate on the site of the historical event. Although we heard that some Icelanders are afraid that afforestation will destroy their open sceneries and make the country “look like Finland”, they are still very attracted to camping in forests by the lakes and rivers. Controversial?

Finnish larch going strong in the middle of the North-Atlantic



Not to be afforested in the near future

A change of environment

Last week I got my first touch to field work in a completely new environment - eucalyptus plantings and South Australian native vegetation remnants - during a day trip to a test site where several hyperspectral (and LiDAR) remote sensing projects are carried out by my new colleagues at the University of Adelaide.

Before the trip, I had a glimpse at some hyperspectral images from the test site and browsed through some forest inventory data. However, I still couldn't imagine what the area would look like in real life.

Very different from what I was accustomed to, that's for sure. There were about 30 different tree species in a small area (I didn't know any of them), mallees, the ground was bare (with patches of green and yellow grasses). One thing is in common with coniferous canopies: the grouped structure of many of the eucalyptus crowns. I guess it's a good starting point to find some common factors in a new environment - psychologically, at least!

So, why the field trip? During the next few months, I will be collaborating with the local researchers and testing some of the approaches (such as the 'p-theory' for modeling canopy reflectance) that I have been working with in the boreal forests. This time only the environment will be very different -- hot, dry and full of eucalyptuses. Looking forward to the challenge and change!

Going Down Under

Winter has arrived early for Miina and me this year. Although it has not directly been snowing on any member of the LAI detectives team recently, chilly winds and sudden cold showers are typical for the season. The winter did not come suddenly, though. The first public sign was a laconic post in the News section of the LAI detectives website in January: "Matti receives a Go8 Fellowship!". Miina joined in on the travel, sponsored by her generous Academy of Finland grant. As an consequence, tension has been building up since May as many small and large businesses needed to be taken care of before the departure: the PHYSENSE seminar, discussing with visiting Yuri Knyazikhin our latest ideas, moving between Helsinki and Tartu, making travel arrangements, finishing manuscripts and presentations, and, last but not least, being on a summer holiday.

Certainly we felt an amount of relief when the door of the airplane closed and we were on our way to Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Weatherwise, this was a nice continuation (or a culmination) to the unusually cool summer in Estonia. Although the nights were chilly in Cairns, there was still enough sunshine during the daytime to make up for it. Fortunately beach weather was kept outside the airconitioned premises of the conference center where we attended AGU Western Pacific Geophysics Meeting.

Alas, the tropical Far North was only a stopover on our journey further south. We said good-bye to the fine weather, sandy beaches, rainforests (covering the hills and emitting smoke as the backdrop to the kangaroos in the photo above) and the Great Barrier Reef, and boarded a plane again.

The final destination and our city of residence for the next four months was Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. At the airport we were warmly greeted by our host Prof. Megan Lewis from the University of Adelaide. Despite the friendliness of the people around here, it is difficult to get used to the abrupt ending of a cool northern summer, especially after the break in Queensland. The fact that this is an unusually cold winter in Australia and I have very little warm clothes in my 20 kg of luggage is not making things easier. Also, as the days were still long in Estonia, the rainy and cool days with sunset before 6 p.m. feels like the dark ages are back. However, these cold days are not to last and there is already a hint of spring in the air, in the songs of the birds and the smell of the flowers. No worries!

River Torrens just north of the center of Adelaide on a cold winter's day.

Heroes of forest inventory

If you have ever headed back to forest after dinner feeling that your sample plot quota for the day has not been fulfilled, this post is devoted to you. You are one of the heroes of forest inventory.

One very typical feature in planning of different forest inventories is that the amount of work needed to finish the campaign is underestimated. Usually the result is that the number of plots or measurements that have been made in the given time is considerably smaller than was planned. However, sometimes it happens that the field crew won’t submit to this, but finds extra energy to carry on with the work when others would have given up. In Joensuu, by far the most legendary example of this are the 474 Matalansalo sample plots, measured in August/September 2004 by Aki and Henri. Their epic work has thereafter inspired many Joensuu’s forest inventory students, and the data has been utilized in numerous studies in the field of airborne laser scanning.

What makes some of us capable of heroic inventory achievements? In practice, forest inventory work means long days in hostile forests, with an immense herd of blood-thirsty mosquitoes whining in your ears, dry spruce twigs stabbing your face, and rain or sweat soaking you wet every day. My feeling is that the motives include at least an extra-developed sense of responsibility and a will to show your superiors that you can reach the goals that you were given. What is clear is that this kind of behaviour is most typical to students, especially if they are gathering data for their own research project. The students at this summer's MARV1-course in Hyytiälä showed that the tradition is likely to continue – hopefully their extra motivation did not arise from pure compulsion, but from knowing that their data will used in real research. On the other hand, more senior field workers seldom bother to continue after their working hours are done – they do the work they are paid for properly and deserve all the respect, but researchers that have the courage to employ students may experience also positive surprises…

And what about my mensuration campaign this summer? The fact that I needed to take two extra weeks in Hyytiälä to finish all the planned measurements should tell everything.

Never let someone else choose your plot locations!

Field assistant establishing LAI-plot

Breaking the routine

In April, Lauri described a typical week in office and lunch as the highlight of a day. I guess this is how many of our days are, nothing too much happening. Fortunately, there are also times when I wish I would have just one ordinary day in office to take care of this and that - the normal, boring days in office are after all something I enjoy.

I spent most of May and June in Helsinki, and it proved to be time for flying from one place to another - no time for sitting in the office and staring at my computer screen. There were two main reasons for this: the PHYSENSE workshop we were organizing in Helsinki and the Solemn Conferment ceremonies of our Faculty (and all the preparations related to both of them).

The PHYSENSE workshop was the second one we organized, so there was a certain routine to it already. Things went smoothly, and at least I enjoyed the workshop and meeting friends once again.

The Solemn Conferment ceremonies at our Faculty are arranged every six years and last for three days including two formal dinners, the Conferment, a grand ball and a countryside picnic. The dress code for all the events is very strict, and takes some time (and effort) to fulfill. Through May, we also practiced old academic dances such as Krakowiak, Valse Mignon, Cicapo and Pas d'Espagne. However, for me, the toughest part was preparing my two (trilingual) speeches for the Solemn Conferment. I know it is the daily job of many people to make formal speeches for big audiences, but for a regular postdoc like me it is certainly a task out of the ordinary. I spent two weeks before the ceremonies simply being nervous...

During the Solemn Conferment, a special reason for joy for our research group was that Tiit Nilson was appointed as an honorary doctor in our Faculty - a beautiful way to acknowledge his long collaboration with the Finnish forest research community.

Recovering from the Solemn Conferment (and the four hours of sleep per night we were able to catch) took me several days. I can honestly admit that I was sleeping in front of my screen, not just staring at it.

A few days after the celebrations Yuri Knyazikhin came for a visit. It was very nice seeing him again, and hearing about future research plans and planning collaboration. In our mini-seminar (i.e. Yuri, Pola, Matti, me) Yuri presented his ideas which involved (surprise, surprise!) our favorite spectral invariants, and Matti presented his new algorithm for retrieving leaf albedo from hyperspectral RS data.

After waving goodbye to Yuri, it was the time for me to say goodbye to Helsinki and head for Tartu (and summer vacation!). Ordinary office days are getting closer...

Conferment picnic (by Matti)

PHYSENSE workshop

We had the second PHYSENSE workshop in Helsinki in the beginning of June. Lots of interesting talks and new faces! I was personally very glad to see so many (young) people presenting their work. (For those interested, the abstracts of the PHYSENSE talks can be accessed at a website set up by Lauri.)

A week in office

Based on this blog you might think that nothing really significant has happened in the first months of this year. Well, I can tell you the truth: nothing really significant has happened. People are mostly just sitting in their offices doing whatever small things are part of their research work. But maybe even the ordinary can be worth reporting - once.

Monday. Rain and snow. I spent the morning making figures for the next manuscript. In the afternoon I browsed through one biometrics book wondering if I need to include some kind of statistical test to confirm that my results are what they look like. Rest of the day was mainly putting the results to paper, one page more was finished. Highlight of the day: final program of the physense-seminar was announced.

Tuesday. The proofs of a recently accepted laser manuscript (codename: motolaser) arrived for checking and final corrections. Most of the day was spent in this job. I also managed to add a few more paragraphs to the yesterdays work before leaving to the sunny spring day outside. Highlight of the day: hopefully this really was the end of the motolaser project, something that started already in fall 2006 and has required a remarkable amount of time and patience since then – while being really funny at times.

Wednesday. Continuing with the manuscript. I decided that one of the figures needs more points, which meant a significant workload for my computer during the morning. In the afternoon I continued writing, and managed to finish early versions of both results and discussion sections. Highlight of the day: an interesting discussion about one particular pine tree growing more than 200 km away.

Thursday. Wrote abstract to the article and spent rest of the day reading once again those same old, vague articles to confirm that I had cited them correctly. Highlight of the day: lunch break.

Friday. Another sunny but quite boring day. More checking of references and clarifying the unclear parts of the manuscript. Happily all this was finished by the end of the day so the paper was more or less ready to move forward. Highlight of the day: closing the pc for weekend.