Theoretical foundations of atmospheric remote sensing are electromagnetic theory, radiative transfer and inversion theory. This book provides an overview of these topics in a common context, compile the results of recent research, as well as fill the gaps, where needed. The following aspects are covered: principles of remote sensing, the atmospheric physics, foundations of the radiative transfer theory, electromagnetic absorption, scattering and propagation, review of computational techniques in radiative transfer, retrieval techniques as well as regularization principles of inversion theory. As such, the book provides a valuable resource for those who work with remote sensing data and want to get a broad view of theoretical foundations of atmospheric remote sensing. The book will be also useful for students and researchers working in such diverse fields like inverse problems, atmospheric physics, electromagnetic theory, and radiative transfer.

Ten years ago the author, together with eight co-authors, edited a textbook Remote Sensing for Environmental Sciences within the series on Ecological Studies of Springer-Verlag. At that time there were not yet many books available on remote sensing. The decade that has elapsed was marked by a spectacular development in this field. This development took place in many directions: by widening the areas of application, by improvements of the methods and the sensors, by the introduction of new versatile platforms, but also by deepening the knowledge of the theoretical foundations. This evolution improved the ability to explain the interaction between electromagnetic radia tion and natural objects, which, in its turn, allowed for better modelization and for the creation of refined mathematical tools in the processing of remotely sensed data and in the determination of the physical status of remote objects. The community of research workers engaged in development and use of remote sensing methods changed accordingly from a modest group of scientists in the early 1970's to a considerable branch of specialized and interdisciplinary activity. The training of students had to be adapted to cope with the increasing number of people entering this new field and with the increasing quality of the material to be presented.

This textbook covers the essentials of atmospheric radiation at a level appropriate to advanced undergraduates and first-year graduate students. It was written specifically to be readable and technically accessible to students having no prior background in the subject area and who may or may not intend to continue with more advanced study of radiation or remote sensing. The author emphasizes physical insight, first and foremost, but backed by the essential mathematical relationships. The second edition adds new exercises, improved figures, a table of symbols, and discussions of new topics, such as the Poynting vector and the energy balance within the atmosphere. The book web page includes additional resources for courses taught using this book, including downloadable/printable PDF figures as well as solutions to most problems (for instructors of recognized courses only).

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of how aerosols form in the atmosphere through in situ processes as well as via transport from the surface (dust storms, seas spray, biogenic emissions, forest fires etc.). Such an analysis has been followed by the consideration of both observation data (various field observational experiments) and numerical modeling results to assess climate impacts of aerosols bearing in mind that these impacts are the most significant uncertainty in studying natural and anthropogenic causes of climate change.

Advanced Remote Sensing is an application-based reference that provides a single source of mathematical concepts necessary for remote sensing data gathering and assimilation. It presents state-of-the-art techniques for estimating land surface variables from a variety of data types, including optical sensors such as RADAR and LIDAR. Scientists in a number of different fields including geography, geology, atmospheric science, environmental science, planetary science and ecology will have access to critically-important data extraction techniques and their virtually unlimited applications. While rigorous enough for the most experienced of scientists, the techniques are well designed and integrated, making the book's content intuitive, clearly presented, and practical in its implementation. - Comprehensive overview of various practical methods and algorithms - Detailed description of the principles and procedures of the state-of-the-art algorithms - Real-world case studies open several chapters - More than 500 full-color figures and tables - Edited by top remote sensing experts with contributions from authors across the geosciences

The public's serious concern about the uncertainties and dangers of the conse quences of human activities on environmental quality demands policies to control the situation and to prevent its deterioration. But far-reaching decisions on the environmental policy are impaired or even made impossible as long as the relevant ecological relations are not sufficiently understood and large-scale quantitative information on the most important parameters is not available in sufficient quality and quantity. The techniques of remote sensing offer new ways of procuring data on natural phenomena with three main advantages - the large distance between sensor and object prevents interference with the environmental conditions to be measured, - the potentiality for large-scale and even global surveys yields a new dimension for the investigations of the environmental parameters, - the extremely wide, spectral range covered by the whole diversity of sensors discloses many properties of the environmental media not detectable within a single wave band (as e.g. the visible). These significant additions to the conventional methods of environmental studies and the particular qualification of several remote sensing methods for quantitative determination of the natural parameters makes this new investigation technique an important tool both to the scientists studying the ecological relationship and the administration in charge of the environmental planning and protection.

This was the fourth postgraduate summer school on remote sensing to be held in Dundee. These summer schools were originated by, and continue to remain in, the programme of EARSel (European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories) Working Group 3 on Education and Training in Remote Sensing. The first of these summer schools was held in 1980 on "Remote Sensing in Meteorology, Oceanography and Hydrology". This was followed in 1982 by a more specialised summer school on "Remote Sensing Applications in Marine Science and Technology" which built on the foundation laid in 1980 and then concentrated on the marine applications of remote sensing techniques. The present summer school was another follow-up of the original 1980 summer school but this time concentrating on the atmospheric rather than the marine applications of remote sensing techniques. The 1984 summer school had not specifically involved atmospheric and marine applications but had been involved with the use of remote sensing in the field of civil engineering. This year's summer school was extremely successful. First of all, this was due to our sponsors, for without their very significant material contributions there would have been no summer school. These sponsors included the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO, together with the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories, the Council of Europe, the European Space Agency, the German Aerospace Establishment (DFVLR) and the Natural Environment Research Council.