Dr. Akira Hirano, senior researcher of the Social Sciences Division was honored with the “Green Asia Award” at the 40th Asian Conference on Remote Sensing (ACRS 2019) which was held in Daejeon, Korea on October 14-18, 2019. The ACRS is an annual event hosted by member countries of the Asian Association on Remote Sensing (AARS) in Asia to promote remote sensing technology through the exchange of information, mutual cooperation, international understanding and goodwill amongst the members. Every year, the conference brings in approximately 800 participants from around the world. The “Green Asia Award” is given to an outstanding paper among all presented papers at the conference that directs Asia towards a greener future using remote sensing technology.

The paper entitled “On the applicability of satellite-based rainfall estimates for the determination of Monsoon onset date: Case study in the Ayeyarwady Delta, Myanmar” was co-authored with Dr. Swe Swe Mar and Ms. Hla Moe Khaing of the Yezin Agricultural University, and Ms. May Toe Aung Myint of the Department of Agriculture Labutta Township all in Myanmar. The paper examined the compatibility between the historical ground-based rainfall measurements and satellite-based rainfall estimates, and then presented a revised method to identify the monsoon onset dates in a specific region using the satellite-based rainfall data. As a result, it was shown that a more detailed analysis is necessary to address the common perception that the onset dates of monsoon are constantly being delayed due to climate change.

The award certificate was presented to Dr. Akira Hirano by Dr. Yi-Hsing Tseng, President of the Chinese Taipei Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (CTSPRS) on behalf of the ACRS 2019 organizers during the closing ceremony on October 18 .