Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring: Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring

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Multivolume work

Persistent identifier:: 856665355

Title:: Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring

Sub title:: techniques and impacts ; September 17 - 21, 1990, Victoria Conference Centre, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Year of publication:: 1990

Place of publication:: Victoria, BC

Publisher of the original:: [Verlag nicht ermittelbar]

Identifier (digital):: 856665355

Language:: English

Document type:: Multivolume work

Volume

Persistent identifier:: 856669164

Title:: Proceedings of the Symposium on Global and Environmental Monitoring

Sub title:: techniques and impacts; September 17 - 21, 1990, Victoria Conference Centre, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Scope:: XIV, 912 Seiten

Year of publication:: 1990

Place of publication:: Victoria, BC

Publisher of the original:: [Verlag nicht ermittelbar]

Identifier (digital):: 856669164

Illustration:: Illustrationen, Diagramme, Karten

Signature of the source:: ZS 312(28,7,1)

Language:: English

Usage licence:: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Editor:: International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Commission of Photographic and Remote Sensing Data

Publisher of the digital copy:: Technische Informationsbibliothek Hannover

Place of publication of the digital copy:: Hannover

Year of publication of the original:: 2016

Document type:: Volume

Collection:: Earth sciences

Chapter

Title:: [TP-3 OCEAN/COASTAL ZONE MONITORING]

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Chapter

Title:: MONITORING THE OCEANS WITH SATELLITE ALTIMETRY TECHNIQUES. Demitris Delikaraoglou, Nicholas Christou and Mario Berube

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

MONITORING THE OCEANS WITH SATELLITE ALTIMETRY TECHNIQUES Demitris Delikaraoglou Nicholas Christou ^ and Mario Berube ^ ^ ^ Canada Centre for Surveying, Geodetic Surveying Division, 615 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A OE9 ® University of New Brunswick, Department of Surveying Engineering, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada E3B 5A3 ABSTRACT Satellite radar altimeter measurements provide a record of the elevation of the sea surface, the height of its waves and the wind speed directly beneath the satellite. For the past three years, an altimeter onboard the United States Navy’s GEOSAT satellite has used this technology to provide accurate information about the sea levels and ocean circulation patterns. These observations provide directly an increadibly rich source of synoptic and global information enabling us to study ocean surface variability on time and space scales unavailable in the past; to better understand the role of ocean circulation in past and future climate; to provide accurate wave information for more efficient operation of commercial and naval vessels; and to produce accurate predictions of tides, tide currents and surface winds which are essential to safe coastal navigation, resource exploration and exploitation (e.g. fisheries and energy). In the near future, planned altimetry systems such as those to be deployed in the early and mid-1990s onboard the SALT, ERS-1 and TOPEX/Poseidon satellites will vastly improve our ability to observe the detailed picture of the ocean’s circulation needed to discern the subtle variations and weather patterns of the sea. This can be achieved by carrying out repeated observations which would result in a series of topographical maps of the elevation of the sea surface. These maps would not only reveal the overall behaviour of the sea surface, but also smaller changes and fluctuations. In the long term, satellite altimeter data will be combined with the latest information regarding ocean density and with theories of ocean dynamics to produce for a first time accurate models of how the global ocean circulation (from its surface to the seafloor) changes over time, and thus prove to be extremely useful in detecting climatic changes and verifying model results. The critical step now in front of us is to bring the technology into an operational environment where it will be used, along with data from other remote sensing satellite sensors for global climate monitoring. In preparation for these upcoming missions, application studies are being carried out at the Canadian Centre for Surveying to develop an operational system for altimeter data analysis and processing. Unclassified data from the GEOSAT Exact Repeat Mission are being used to develop new or revised algorithms and to produce trial products. This paper reviews these developments, the results currently obtained from GEOSAT data, and the experiments planned for the upcoming missions. KEY WORDS: Satellite Altimetry, Environmental Monitoring, Oceanic Studies INTRODUCTION To date techniques for observing the Earth from space have evolved to the point that they can be exploited to achieve an understanding of how the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, land and ice-covered regions function and interact as an integrated system. The growing awareness to see the Earth as one “system” has led to an initiative by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), Canada and Japan to establish a realistic and affordable overall strategy for Earth observation. The major rationale for the future Earth Observing System (Eos) program is founded on the realization that major problems concerning - the well-being of the environment and the increasing evidence of climatic changes; - the management of limited resources vis-à-vis the increasing demand for these resources; - the increasingly stringent operational constraints on forecasting meteorological systems; and - the understanding of the Earth’s geo-kinematics and geophysics, gravity and magnetic fields, the relationships of sea-level changes and climatology etc. can only be addressed effectively by assessing the importance/relevance of Earth observation to specific interdisciplinary problems relevant to these issues. In particular, the oceanic and polar regions of the Earth 81 have become the focus of considerable attention in recent years in connection with global climatic concerns, the main reasons being that: • Oceanic storage of heat can strongly influence the rate and amount of greenhouse warming, and the oceans themselves are major sinks for carbon dioxide. This realization stresses the need for a better understanding of the role of the oceans and ice cover in either modulating or amplifying the warming trend; • There is growing evidence that the polar regions play a key role in the physical processes responsible for global climatic fluctuations. In many instances, they might even be the prime source of such fluctuations; • Polar regions are now widely recognized as important repositories of information on paleoclimates and the causes of past climatic changes; • There is mounting concern that systematic warming of the polar regions and dramatic trends in ozone depletion (believed to be a direct consequence of a man-induced “greenhouse effect”) will alter the balance of the ice masses and thus affect the global sea level with all the attendant consequences in terms of flood control, surface and groundwater level management and ecology; • Field observations have now revealed a possible

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