This month´s covers ...

Front cover: The ELDORA/ASTRALA airborne Doppler radar is in service at US and French atmospheric sciences research laboratories. It is designed to provide high resolution measurements of air motion and rainfall characteristics of atmospheric storms which are too large, remote, or fast moving to be adequately observed by ground-based radars. The ELDORA observations on the cover are through a tornado showing radar reflectivity (upper), radio velocity (middle) and Doppler spectral width (bottom). [Ref. 0885-8985196/J0/34-37f4J. Back cover: The Pioneer Award has been given annually, since the initial award in 1949, to an individual or team for "contributions significant to bringing into being systems that are still in existence after 20 years. "These systems fall within the specific areas of interest of the society; that is, electronic or aerospace systems. The contribution(s) for which the award is bestowed are to have been made at least twenty (20) years prior to the year of the award, to ensure proper historical perspective. It is not a condition that any awardee should have been sole or original inventor or developer; "significant contribution" of a specific nature is the key criterion. Nationality, residence, or organizational membership are not factors. Each year the awardee is requested to present, at the award ceremony, insight - in his own words - into the work that led to his selection. The awardee\´s expanded version of this presentation is then published in the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems. William Fishbein, the 2006 Pioneer Awardee, has provided his insights concerning the Firefinder radar; his complete contribution may be found on page 817ff of the April 2008 issue [44, 21 of the Transactions. Our rear cover photographs from that article are of the ANITPQ-36 [below] and ANITPQ-37 [above] radars.