Advances in satellite oceanography

Progress has been made in the past four years by U.S. scientists in the development and application of active and passive satellite remote sensing techniques to the study of oceanic processes. This report summarizes technical advances and recent applications. Major advances have been made in developing and applying quantitative measurements from active and passive satellite based sensor systems launched in the late 1970's and that proven methodologies now exist to observe sea surface temperature, ocean elevation, ocean color, surface wind stress and waves, and to locate free drifting buoy data collection platforms. Many of the advances in technique and application have occurred using sensors which were experimental, i.e., not part of an operational satellite observing system. Consequently future geophysical application and development of advanced techniques to enhance our understanding of the ocean will probably be limited in the next five years by data availability rather than our knowledge of how to apply given satellite observations