Frontispiece: Two intense atmospheric disturbances apparently join forces. What are the dynamics that produces these visible manifestations? Are they really connected? Twenty years of satellite remote sensing have produced a vast data base of day and night images at high resolution in many portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Their use in meteorology is indispensable. Analogous observations of the oceans are nascent-proofs-of-concept have been completed. Where do we go from here? This report attempts to discuss some of the possibilities and provides some guidelines for future efforts. PREFACE During the later part of the previous decade, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), together with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Defense (DoD), planned for the first operational demonstration of a spaceborne ocean observing system, the National Oceanic Satellite System (NOSS). As then conceived, the first NOSS satellite was to have been launched in 1986. This system would have been based on the heritage and successful proof-of-concept demonstrations afforded by Skylab, GEOS 3, Nimbus 7, and Seasat. As a means for addressing the scientific needs of the oceanographic community as a whole, the NOSS Science Working Group was formed in the spring of 1980 under the chairmanship and guidance of Dr. Francis P. Bretherton. The Group was charged with three tasks: first, to recommend sensor modifications and additions to fill the 25% of the spacecraft capacity which had been reserved for research purposes; second, to identify research problems amenable to solution utilizing NOSS data; and third, to recommend appropriate facilities for the research community to use NOSS data effectively in the solution of these problems. This document conveys their recommendations. Since the formation of this group, the ground rules have been changed: NOSS was deleted from the budget. Nonetheless, satellite oceanography is an important field of endeavor, and will continue to be so in the future. We take this report, then, as an important and focussed set of recommendations for the nearterm direction of the NASA satellite oceanography program. As such, the report is valuable in helping us develop a realistic rationale for the continued development of our nation's space-based observations for the oceanographic community. The members of the NOSS Science Working Group and their many interested colleagues who freely offered their help are to be congratulated for their work; NASA and the entire oceanographic community can only benefit from their efforts, and we are grateful for their aid. Lawrence F. McGoldrick Oceanic Processes Branch Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications FOREWORD Icing the Pole or in the torrid clime, Dark-heaving-boundless — endless and sublime Byron The poet wrote these lines at the beginning of the modern age of scientific exploration of the oceans. For centuries previously, geographic discovery and exploitation saw many maritime expeditions devoted to rounding out knowledge of the globe; many useful scientific observations also resulted. For example, until not too long ago the best temperature measurements and depth soundings in some oceanic regions were those of Captain Cook, dating from the eighteenth century. In even more remote ages, people used the seas extensively-for trade and emigration routes, for food and mineral resources. Much of the lore of the sea has very ancient roots. Icing the Pole, sings the poet. The ice-covered Arctic Ocean is not at all a tranquil, negligible sea. It exchanges waters primarily with the |