Satellite oceanography in Russia: the present status and near-term outlooks

摘要

A short description of the history of satellite oceanography in Russia is given. The main advantages were associated with development of the satellite passive and active microwave sensors and their application to study the oceanic parameters, phenomena and processes as well as the marine weather systems. The first microwave observations were carried out from Kosmos-243 satellite (September 1968), the first real aperture radar (RAR) was launched in September 1983 (Kosmos-1500) and the first satellite sensing of the ocean by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) was performed in 1989 (Kosmos-1870) and then in 1990-1992 (satellite Almaz). Radar sensing from Kosmos-1500 and then from similar Kosmos-1602, Kosmos-1766 and Okean series satellites was accompanied by observations with a scanning microwave radiometer at wavelength of 0.8 cm and with a multichannel scanning device of minor resolution at visible range. The last RAR images were acquired in February 2000. The nearest plans of the ocean sensing from space include satellite experiments with Russian-Ukrainian Sich-1M satellite (iaunching in 2004) and with Meteor-3M N2 satellite (2005). Description of their instrumental complexes and the main directions of the future research are given in the report. Russian scientists perform research of the Black, Caspian, Baltic, Northern and Far-eastern seas and the World Ocean with the data collected by American (NOAA, DMSP, QuikSCAT, Terra, Aqua, GOES-9, etc.), European (ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat), Japan (ADEOS-Ⅰ, ADEOS-Ⅱ and GMS-5) and China (FY-2B) satellites in different spectral ranges. The information obtained by DMSP SSM/Ⅰ, ADEOS-Ⅱ AMSR and Aqua AMSR-E scanning microwave radiometers was used to retrieve the sea surface temperature and near surface wind speed as well as the total atmospheric water vapor and total cloud liquid water content in tropical and extratropical cyclones, during cold air outbreaks, etc. Parameters of the ocean-atmosphere system were estimated with the advanced algorithms developed as a result of numerical experiments with a model of the microwave radiative transfer. NOAA AVHRR, RAR and SAR images allowed to investigate the spatial and temporal variations of currents, fronts, eddies, internal waves and other dynamic oceanic phenomena, to monitor coastal zones including oil pollution detection, to map ice conditions, etc. Examples are given illustrating the results of investigations.