REMOTE SENSING OF THE OCEAN AND ATMOSPHERE (16:375:551)

Spring 1998, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Scott Glenn and Jim Miller
Marine and Coastal Sciences Building
Rooms 111C and 111D 732-932-6555, ext 544 and ext 545
Jennifer Francis, Old Blake Hall, Room 206, 932-7684

MOTIVATION:

The Earth is a complex system of interacting natural and human components that continues to be stressed by a rapidly growing world population. To sustain the Earth's ecosystem, it is essential to improve our understanding of the system components, their interrelationships, how they change, and why. Satellite remote sensing systems can provide some of the data necessary to help answer these questions through repeated observations of the Earth's natural systems over spatial scales ranging from regional to global and temporal scales ranging from minutes to decades.

Satellite remote sensing of the ocean and atmosphere is a rapidly evolving field. A wide range of operational sensors are already in orbit, and new platforms with enhanced sensor capabilities continue to be planned, constructed and launched. The ever increasing flow of remote sensing data to the scientific community will require students to be familiar with the different sensors available, the capabilities and limitations of each sensor, and the methodologies for exploiting each sensor's data. Moreover, students should discover that one sensor is often not sufficient to study many natural phenomena. Of increasing importance is the ability to combine different remote sensing, in situ, and historical data sets using computer overlay and visualization techniques in a geographic information system (GIS) environment.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course introduces students to the variety of satellite sensors designed for oceanographic and atmospheric applications that are presently in orbit or planned for the future. The initial focus is on the electromagnetic spectrum, satellite orbital dynamics, satellite measurement geometry, and radiometers. The focus then shifts to atmospheric and oceanographic applications of the remote sensing data presently being collected at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences from passive visible/infrared sensors. Atmospheric soundings of temperature and gases, such as water vapor and ozone are considered next, followed by a discussion of remote sensing in polar regions. Finally, we discuss active remote sensing systems such as scatterometers, synthetic aperture radar, altimeters, and high frequency radars, with applications to winds, sea surface height, and surface currents.

Many of the topics are accompanied by Web-based assignments and brief oral presentations in the Remote Sensing Laboratory. The laboratory demonstrations illustrate the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of these data sets in a GIS environment.

OBJECTIVES:

Introduce students to the variety, capabilities, and limitations of remote sensing systems available for oceanographic and atmospheric research. Provide the background necessary to understand how these satellites and their sensors observe the ocean and atmosphere. Demonstrate several applications of remote sensing data to oceanographic and atmospheric research, emphasizing the use of combined remote sensing, in situ and historical data sets to answer specific research questions. Provide students a hands-on, Web- based opportunity to use remote sensing data to answer their own practical research questions. Provide a forum for students to present their own research topic to the class in a Web-based format.

TERM PROJECT:

Students will pursue a research question of their own design, either individually or in groups. Results of your investigation will be put on the Web and presented in class. A possible format would be to include the following sections: abstract, introduction, background, hypothesis to be tested, methodology used, results, discussion of results, suggestions for future study, conclusions and references.

GRADING:

Based on a combination of assignments, exams, and term project (percentages for each area determined by each student)

TEXT:

Course materials on Internet and on Library Reserve

REFERENCES ON RESERVE IN CHANG LIBRARY:

     Barrett, E. and L. Curtis, Intro. to Remote Sensing
     Colwell, R., Manual of Remote Sensing
     Elachi, C., Intro. to Physics and Techniques of Remote Sensing
     Houghton, J.T., et al., Remote Sounding of Atmospheres
     Lo, C.P., Applied Remote Sensing
     Richardson, B., Intro. to Remote Sensing of the Environment
     Stewart, R.H., Methods of Satellite Oceanography
     Szekielda, K., Satellite Monitoring of the Earth
     Robinson, I.S., Satellite Oceanography: An Introduction for 
        Oceanographers and Remote Sensing Scientists
     Stephens, G.L., Remote Sensing of the Lower Atmosphere
     Kidder, S.Q., and T.H. Vonder Haar, Satellite Meteorology

CLASS SCHEDULE:

Date      Topic                            Lecturer              Reading  
______    ____________________________     ____________          _________  
          
Jan 21    Introduction                     Francis,Glenn,Miller 

Jan 26    Electromagnetic Spectrum         Jim Miller
  
Jan 28    Electromagnetic Spectrum/        Jim Miller
          Radiative Transfer Equation

Feb  2    Satellite Orbital Dynamics       Scott Glenn

Feb  4    Measurement Geometry             Scott Glenn  
          Remote Sensing Lab               

Feb  9    Radiometers/applications         Jim Miller

Feb 11    Clouds                           Jim Miller         Wielicki et
                                                               al. (1995) 

Feb 16    Visible Sensors                  Scott Glenn
          Term Project Topic Due

Feb 18    Visible Sensors                  Scott Glenn 
          Remote Sensing Lab
 
Feb 23    Infrared Sensors                 Scott Glenn           

Feb 25    Infrared Sensors                 Scott Glenn           
          Remote Sensing Lab

Mar 2     Earth Radiation Budget           Jim Miller         Barkstrom et  
                                                              al. (1990)
Mar 4     Earth Radiation Budget           Jim Miller
          Remote Sensing Lab

Mar 9     Discussion of class projects     Glenn, Miller 
         
Mar 11    Developing Web pages             Scott Glenn
          Remote Sensing Lab 

Spring Break

Mar 23    Atmospheric temperature profiles Jim Miller         Chahine(1970)

Mar 25    TOVS retrievals                  Jennifer Francis

Mar 30    Ozone                            Jim Miller         Stolarski et  
          Remote Sensing Lab                                  al. (1992)



Apr  1    Microwave sensors
          Air temperature/MSU controversy  Jim Miller
          Sea ice

Apr  6    Polar applications               Jennifer Francis


Apr  8    Active Systems/Radar
          Scatterometer/Winds              Jim Miller      
          
Apr 13    Altimeters                       Scott Glenn           

Apr 15    Altimeters                       Scott Glenn           
          Remote Sensing Lab
   
Apr 20    High frequency radar
          Ocean surface currents           Scott Glenn              

Apr 22    Aerosols                         Alan Robock

Apr 27    Student Project Presentations           
          Remote Sensing Lab

Apr 29    Student Project Presentations
          Remote Sensing Lab

May  4    Linking Web Pages    
          Term Project Due
          Remote Sensing Lab