The 30ACRS was convened in Beijing on Oct.19, 2009 with “Asia Onward Space Age” as its theme. More than 800 scholars, entrepreneurs and management specialists from Asia and the other parts of the world attended the opening ceremony, which was presided over by Academician Mr. Tong Qingxi, chair of the International Steering Committee of the AARS. The conference was jointly hosted by the AARS and the CNCRS and organized by the IRSA and CEODE of the CAS, the AGRS, and the NRSCC with the assistance of all CNCRS members.
Professor Kohei Cho, chair of the ACRS, and Research Fellow Mr. Gu Xingfa delivered welcome speeches respectively and others who spoke at the opening ceremony included Mr. Xu Guanhua, former minister of the MOST, Mr. Xu Deming, deputy minister of the MLR, Mr. Gao Wei, representing the International Society for Optical Engineering, Mr. Orhan Altan, chair of the ISPRS, Mr. Jin Yaqiu, representing the IEEE and Mr. Willim Farland, senior vice president of the University of Colorado.

At the conference, twelve scientists from China, India, Japan, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand and Vietnam were awarded the Boon Indrambarya prize. Professor Guo Huadong, director of the CEODE, and Professor Li Deren from Wuhan University were mainland recipients of the award, which was named after Professor Boon Indrambarya, a Thai remote sensing scientist, and given those credited with major contributions to the development of remote sensing science in Asia. Awards were also handed out to some young scientists in acknowledgement of their theses of premium quality.

The conference of this year marked the 30th annual session of the AARS and coincided with the 30th anniversary of the organization. Festivities were held in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the AARS and the opening ceremony was brought to a successful end by 12am.

As the annual session of the AARS, the ACRS provides scholars from countries and regions in Asia and the rest of the world with an important forum for academic exchanges. The six-day meeting, the biggest gathering of the remote sensing community of Asia, was expected to give a boost to the exchanges and cooperation between Asian countries in the development of remote sensing science, geographic data systems and the applications of space technology. At the invitation of the conference organizers, scientists from the Chinese mainland, the United States and Canada delivered academic lectures at the meeting. Besides, a total of fifty events were held for the meeting attendees, ranging from seminars on various subjects, speech sessions focused on designated matters, lectures to the Young Scholars’ Forum and exhibitions of research achievements. An exhibition of advanced remote-sensing technologies was held on the sidelines of the conference, where the CEODE of the CAS put on display the real-time satellite broadcasting system, the national Landsat receiving station network and the Digital Earth Laboratory, etc.

 
Academician Mr. Tong Qingxi handed out the Boon Indrambarya Award.

 The real-time satellite broadcasting system, the national Landsat receiving station network and the Digital Earth Laboratory on display at the No.1 exhibition stand

A visitor was being briefed on aerial remote sensing images taken in an August 2009 mission.