Annotation Rodgers (U. of Oxford) provides graduate students and other researchers a background to the inverse problem and its solution, with applications relating to atmospheric measurements. He introduces the stages in the reverse order than the usual approach in order to develop the learner's intuition about the nature of the inverse problem. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Remote sounding of the atmosphere has proved to be a fruitful method of obtaining global information about the atmospheres of the earth and other planets. This book treats comprehensively the inverse problem of remote sounding, and discusses a wide range of retrieval methods for extracting atmospheric parameters of interest from the quantities (thermal emission, for example) that can be measured remotely. Inverse theory is treated in depth from an estimation-theory point of view, but practical questions are also emphasized, such as designing observing systems to obtain the maximum quantity of information, efficient numerical implementation of algorithms for processing large quantities of data, error analysis and approaches to the validation of the resulting retrievals. The book is targeted at graduate students as well as scientists.

The impact of anthropogenic activities on our atmospheric environment is of growing public concern and satellite-based techniques now provide an essential component of observational strategies on regional and global scales. The purpose of this book is to summarise the state of the art in the field in general, while describing both key techniques and findings in particular. It opens with an historical perspective of the field together with the basic principles of remote sensing from space. Three chapters follow on the techniques and on the solutions to the problems associated with the various spectral regions in which observations are made. The particular challenges posed by aerosols and clouds are covered in the next two chapters. Of special importance is the accuracy and reliability of remote sensing data and these issues are covered in a chapter on validation. The final section of the book is concerned with the exploitation of data, with chapters on observational aspects, which includes both individual and synergistic studies, and on the comparison of global and regional observations with chemical transport and climate models and the added value that the interaction brings to both. The book concludes with scientific needs and likely future developments in the field, and the necessary actions to be taken if we are to have the global observation system that the Earth needs in its present, deteriorating state. The appendices provide a comprehensive list of satellite instruments, global representations of some ancillary data such as fire counts and light pollution, a list of abbreviations and acronyms, and a set of colourful timelines indicating the satellite coverage of tropospheric composition in the foreseeable future. Altogether, this book will be a timely reference and overview for anyone working at the interface of environmental, atmospheric and space sciences.

This book summarizes the author’s research resulted in developing the satellite radiothermovision approach which allows retrieving dynamical and energy characteristics of atmospheric mesoscale and synoptic-scale processes based on a close scheme of satellite passive radiometry data processing. The book introduces new applications of the satellite passive microwave observations to detailed systematic study of tropical cyclones’ evolution, climatology and characteristics of atmospheric river, parameters of global atmospheric circulation and their variations on climatically significant scales. The results presented in the book demonstrate a clear relation between the convergence/divergence of latent heat from the lower atmosphere to the center of tropical cyclone with variations of its intensity and provide a better insight into the tropical cyclone dynamical energy balance based on remote data.

Atmospheric water plays a key role in climate. Water vapour is the most important greenhouse gas and its condensed forms exert a profound influence on both incoming solar and outgoing infrared radiation. Unfortunately, accurate, height-resolved global-scale measurements of atmospheric humidity are difficult to obtain. The change in concentration of five orders of magnitude form the ground to the stratosphere means there is no standard instrument that will measure everywhere. This has led to different measuring techniques, all with strengths and weaknesses. This book assesses all presently available techniques that are used in monitoring networks. Special weight is given to presenting the different technical concepts, the accuracy of different sensor types, addresses calibration issues and retrieval aspects.

Hydrocarbon exploration and production incorporate great technology challenges for the oil and gas industry. In order to meet the world's future demand for oil and gas, further technological advance is needed, which in turn requires research across multiple disciplines, including mathematics, geophysics, geology, petroleum engineering, signal processing, and computer science. This book addresses important aspects and fundamental concepts in hydrocarbon exploration and production. Moreover, new developments and recent advances in the relevant research areas are discussed, whereby special emphasis is placed on mathematical methods and modelling. The book reflects the multi-disciplinary character of the hydrocarbon production workflow, ranging from seismic data imaging, seismic analysis and interpretation and geological model building, to numerical reservoir simulation. Various challenges concerning the production workflow are discussed in detail. The thirteen chapters of this joint work, authored by international experts from academic and industrial institutions, include survey papers of expository character as well as original research articles. Large parts of the material presented in this book were developed between November 2000 and April 2004 through the European research and training network NetAGES, "Network for Automated Geometry Extraction from Seismic". The new methods described here are currently being implemented as software tools at Schlumberger Stavanger Research, one of the world's largest service providers to the oil industry.

During the last three decades, it has become increasingly clear that atmospheric modelling and remote sounding of the atmosphere from space, to name just two important application areas, are affected by non-equilibrium processes which have not been incorporated into traditional radiative transfer calculations. These processes, dubbed ?non-LTE?, are therefore the subject of growing interest among scholars and researchers dealing with the upper atmosphere. This important book provides the first comprehensive and ?global? description of non-LTE infrared emissions in the atmosphere of the Earth and other planets, starting with the theoretical foundations and progressing to the most important applications. Besides giving an introduction to this complex subject, it is a guide to the state-of-the-art in incorporating non-LTE processes into radiative transfer algorithms and computer models of the atmosphere. Numerous examples are presented of the application of these methods to (a) atmospheric remote sensing, (b) atmospheric energy budget (cooling and heating rate) calculations, and (c) atmospheres other than the Earth's.