Chapter 1
Oceans from Space, a Once-a-Decade
Review of Progress: Satellite Oceanography
in a Changing World
Jim F. R. Gower
1.1 Introduction
At the first Oceans from Space conference in Venice in 1980, we celebrated NASA’s
launch of two ocean satellites, Seasat and Nimbus 7, which showed the amazing
capabilities of the new images and measurements from space. We saw that altimetry
could measure currents and waves, that ocean color could measure surface chlorophyll and plankton blooms, that SAR could measure waves and ocean fronts, that
scatterometers could measure surface wind, and that microwaves could map ice
and measure sea surface temperatures through cloud. We looked forward to the
launch of NOSS, the planned US National Ocean Satellite System, which would
“operationalize” satellite oceanography, and which as a result would be much more
expensive.
At the second conference in 1990, we were a sadder but wiser group, NOSS had
failed to appear, the CZCS had eventually died, and we were seeing gaps in our
data time series. At the same time, we had become uncomfortably aware that global
climate change was likely upon us, and that we needed continuing time series of
exactly these types of data.
By 2000 we were again happier, celebrating the new strengths of the global ocean
satellite community. MODIS had been launched, the ERS satellites marked the start
of ESA’s major role in global earth observation. Japan had a brief success with
ADEOS, Russia had contributed radar satellites, and Topex/Poseidon had collected
a significant time series of altimetric data.
Today in 2010, we can continue to rejoice in our new data sources, but we now
have no remaining doubt of the dangers inherent in allowing un-checked growth in
carbon dioxide concentration in the earth’s atmosphere. We see the need for global,
stable, long-term time series of ocean satellite data to show us the changes that
are occurring. Happily, we now have more satellites and a much greater capability
J.F.R. Gower (B)
Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Sidney, BC V8L 4B2, Canada
e-mail: Jim.Gower@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
1
V. Barale et al. (eds.), Oceanography from Space,
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8681-5_1, C
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Oceans from Space, a Once-a-Decade
Review of Progress: Satellite Oceanography
in a Changing World
Jim F. R. Gower
1.1 Introduction
At the first Oceans from Space conference in Venice in 1980, we celebrated NASA’s
launch of two ocean satellites, Seasat and Nimbus 7, which showed the amazing
capabilities of the new images and measurements from space. We saw that altimetry
could measure currents and waves, that ocean color could measure surface chlorophyll and plankton blooms, that SAR could measure waves and ocean fronts, that
scatterometers could measure surface wind, and that microwaves could map ice
and measure sea surface temperatures through cloud. We looked forward to the
launch of NOSS, the planned US National Ocean Satellite System, which would
“operationalize” satellite oceanography, and which as a result would be much more
expensive.
At the second conference in 1990, we were a sadder but wiser group, NOSS had
failed to appear, the CZCS had eventually died, and we were seeing gaps in our
data time series. At the same time, we had become uncomfortably aware that global
climate change was likely upon us, and that we needed continuing time series of
exactly these types of data.
By 2000 we were again happier, celebrating the new strengths of the global ocean
satellite community. MODIS had been launched, the ERS satellites marked the start
of ESA’s major role in global earth observation. Japan had a brief success with
ADEOS, Russia had contributed radar satellites, and Topex/Poseidon had collected
a significant time series of altimetric data.
Today in 2010, we can continue to rejoice in our new data sources, but we now
have no remaining doubt of the dangers inherent in allowing un-checked growth in
carbon dioxide concentration in the earth’s atmosphere. We see the need for global,
stable, long-term time series of ocean satellite data to show us the changes that
are occurring. Happily, we now have more satellites and a much greater capability
J.F.R. Gower (B)
Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Sidney, BC V8L 4B2, Canada
e-mail: Jim.Gower@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
1
V. Barale et al. (eds.), Oceanography from Space,
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8681-5_1, C
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010