50 Years of Satellite Remote Sensing of the Ocean

Abstract

The development of the technologies of remote sensing of the ocean was initiated in the 1970s, while the ideas of observing the ocean from space were conceived in the late 1960s. The first global view from space revealed the expanse and complexity of the state of the ocean that had perplexed and inspired oceanographers ever since. This paper presents a glimpse of the vast progress made from ocean remote sensing in the past 50 years that has a profound impact on the ways we study the ocean in relation to weather and climate. The new view from space in conjunction with the deployment of an unprecedented amount of in situ observations of the ocean has led to a revolution in physical oceanography. The highlights of the achievement include the description and understanding of the global ocean circulation, the air–sea fluxes driving the coupled ocean–atmosphere system that is most prominently illustrated in the tropical oceans. The polar oceans are most sensitive to climate change with significant consequences, but owing to remoteness they were not accessible until the space age. Fundamental discoveries have been made on the evolution of the state of sea ice as well as the circulation of the ice-covered ocean. Many surprises emerged from the extraordinary accuracy and expanse of the space observations. Notable examples include the determination of the global mean sea level rise as well as the role of the deep ocean in tidal mixing and dissipation.

Remote Sensing Systems for Ocean: A Review (Part 1: Passive Systems)

“…Over the past several decades, Optical Remote Sensing Systems (ORSS) have been widely used to study the physical, biological, and chemical properties of oceans with costeffective approaches [9]. For example, the proven feasibility of monitoring oceans by the first Ocean Color Satellite (OCS), Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) onboard Nimbus-7, launched in 1987 created a unique opportunity to employ OCS data for ocean studies [10], [11].…”

Surface Kinetic Energy Distributions in the Global Oceans From a High‐Resolution Numerical Model and Surface Drifter Observations

“…Satellite remote sensing has been extensively used to advance our understanding of ocean dynamics over the last several decades (Fu et al, ; Morrow & Le Traon, ). With the advent of wide‐swath radar interferometry, the upcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission is expected to measure, for the first time, the sea surface height globally and at spatial scales down to 15–50 km depending on the local sea state (Callies & Wu, ; Morrow et al, ; Wang et al, ).…”

Index establishment and capability evaluation of space–air–ground remote sensing cooperation in geohazard emergency response

“…Meteorological satellites observe Earth and its atmosphere, and their operations can be divided into Sun-synchronous polar orbit and geosynchronous orbit (NSMC, 2020; Wang et al, 2018). Oceanic satellites are dedicated satellites that detect oceanic elements and the marine environment with optical payloads generally including watercolor water thermometers and coastal zone imagers and microwave payloads including scatterometers, radiometers, altimeters and SAR (Fu et al, 2019). The countries and regions in the world that currently have autonomous remote sensing satellites include the United States, France, ESA members, Germany, Israel, Canada, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and India.…”