"Techniques for gathering data by remote sensors on satellites utilized for sea ice research are summarized. Measurement of brightness temperatures by a passive microwave imager converted to maps of total sea ice concentration and to the areal fractions covered by first year and multiyear ice are described. Several ancillary observations, especially by means of automatic data buoys and submarines equipped with upward looking sonars, are needed to improve the validation and interpretation of satellite data. The design and performance characteristics of the Navy's Special Sensor Microwave Imager, expected to be in orbit in late 1985, are described. It is recommended that data from that instrument be processed to a form suitable for research applications and archived in a readily accessible form. The sea ice data products required for research purposes are described and recommendations for their archival and distribution to the scientific community are presented."--NTIS abstract.

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 68. Human activities in the polar regions have undergone incredible changes in this century. Among these changes is the revolution that satellites have brought about in obtaining information concerning polar geophysical processes. Satellites have flown for about three decades, and the polar regions have been the subject of their routine surveillance for more than half that time. Our observations of polar regions have evolved from happenstance ship sightings and isolated harbor icing records to routine global records obtained by those satellites. Thanks to such abundant data, we now know a great deal about the ice-covered seas, which constitute about 10% of the Earth's surface. This explosion of information about sea ice has fascinated scientists for some 20 years. We are now at a point of transition in sea ice studies; we are concerned less about ice itself and more about its role in the climate system. This change in emphasis has been the prime stimulus for this book.

Passive Microwave Remote Sensing of Oceans Igor V. Cherny and Victor Yu. Raizer In Passive Microwave Remote Sensing of Oceans, the detailed results of more than 20 years of experimental and theoretical investigations in the field of ocean remote sensing, utilising microwave radiometric techniques and multi-frequency aerospace instruments, are presented. Experimental results presented in this book to some extent contradict the traditional view that microwave radiometry and, in particular, millimetre-wave frequencies are not useful for remote sensing of oceans. The authors show that studies of the ocean and atmosphere as a coupled system, and of processes occurring at the ocean surface and in deep water, can be reliably evolved using compact passive radiometric sensors. They further demonstrate that for studies of global, large-scale and local processes in the ocean-atmosphere system, only the combination of microwave and optical techniques will reveal the spatial structure and dynamics of the ocean surface at scales from centimetres to several hundred metres. The text first introduces ocean surface phenomena, discussing the ocean-atmosphere interface, the classification of surface waves, the generation and statistics of wind waves, and wave-breaking and foaming processes. The microwave emission characteristics of the ocean surface are then described, and the influence of wind waves, bubble-foam-spray coverage, oil spills and sea ice are discussed. The instruments and methods used for passive microwave remote sensing of the oceans from both aircraft and from satellites are reviewed. Microwave observations of processes in the ocean-atmosphere system are then described in detail, incorporating a new approach for microwave diagnostics of deep-ocean processes. Examples presented include the Rossby soliton, frontal zone in the Kurosio region, influence of brief showers on the subsurface layer, and interaction of tropical cyclones with the ocean during their origin and subsequent trajectories over the ocean surface. Readership: Undergraduate and postgraduate students studying remote sensing, marine science, oceanography, geography, geophysics, meteorology, climatology, atmospheric physics and environmental science. Professional oceanographers and those interested in oceanographic remote sensing processes and their applications, marine scientists and engineers, environmental scientists, and those studying the ocean-atmosphere system.

Active (imaging radar) and passive (radiometer) microwave systems are increasingly used for Arctic ecological research. Unfortunately, until now ecologists interested in remote sensing often lacked access to the full suite of physical and analytical techniques of microwave systems, data processing, and ecological applications because a suitable ref