Polar Oceans from Space

Polar Oceans from Space PDF Author: Josefino Comiso
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387683003
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
Only a few centuries ago, we knew very little about our planet Earth. The Earth was considered flat by many although it was postulated by a few like Aristotle that it is spherical based on observations that included the study of lunar eclipses. Much later, Christopher Columbus successfully sailed to the West to discover the New World and Ferdinand Magellan’s ship circumnavigated the globe to prove once and for all that the Earth is indeed a sphere. Worldwide navigation and explorations that followed made it clear that the Earth is huge and rather impossible to study solely by foot or by water. The advent of air travel made it a lot easier to do exploratory studies and enabled the mapping of the boundaries of continents and the oceans. But aircraft coverage was limited and it was not until the satellite era that full c- erage of the Earth’s surface became available. Many of the early satellites were research satellites and that meant in part the development of engineering measurement systems with no definite applications in mind. The Nimbus-5 Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) was a classic case in point. The sensor was built with the idea that it may be useful for meteorological research and especially rainfall studies over the oceans, but success in this area of study was very limited.

Polar Oceans from Space

Polar Oceans from Space PDF Author: Josefino Comiso
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387683003
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 513

Get Book Here

Book Description
Only a few centuries ago, we knew very little about our planet Earth. The Earth was considered flat by many although it was postulated by a few like Aristotle that it is spherical based on observations that included the study of lunar eclipses. Much later, Christopher Columbus successfully sailed to the West to discover the New World and Ferdinand Magellan’s ship circumnavigated the globe to prove once and for all that the Earth is indeed a sphere. Worldwide navigation and explorations that followed made it clear that the Earth is huge and rather impossible to study solely by foot or by water. The advent of air travel made it a lot easier to do exploratory studies and enabled the mapping of the boundaries of continents and the oceans. But aircraft coverage was limited and it was not until the satellite era that full c- erage of the Earth’s surface became available. Many of the early satellites were research satellites and that meant in part the development of engineering measurement systems with no definite applications in mind. The Nimbus-5 Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) was a classic case in point. The sensor was built with the idea that it may be useful for meteorological research and especially rainfall studies over the oceans, but success in this area of study was very limited.

Polar Oceans from Space

Polar Oceans from Space PDF Author: Josefino Comiso
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9781493938872
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 507

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Book Description
Only a few centuries ago, we knew very little about our planet Earth. The Earth was considered flat by many although it was postulated by a few like Aristotle that it is spherical based on observations that included the study of lunar eclipses. Much later, Christopher Columbus successfully sailed to the West to discover the New World and Ferdinand Magellan’s ship circumnavigated the globe to prove once and for all that the Earth is indeed a sphere. Worldwide navigation and explorations that followed made it clear that the Earth is huge and rather impossible to study solely by foot or by water. The advent of air travel made it a lot easier to do exploratory studies and enabled the mapping of the boundaries of continents and the oceans. But aircraft coverage was limited and it was not until the satellite era that full c- erage of the Earth’s surface became available. Many of the early satellites were research satellites and that meant in part the development of engineering measurement systems with no definite applications in mind. The Nimbus-5 Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer (ESMR) was a classic case in point. The sensor was built with the idea that it may be useful for meteorological research and especially rainfall studies over the oceans, but success in this area of study was very limited.

Alien Oceans

Alien Oceans PDF Author: Kevin Hand
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691227284
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Inside the epic quest to find life on the water-rich moons at the outer reaches of the solar system Where is the best place to find life beyond Earth? We often look to Mars as the most promising site in our solar system, but recent scientific missions have revealed that some of the most habitable real estate may actually lie farther away. Beneath the frozen crusts of several of the small, ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn lurk vast oceans that may have existed for as long as Earth, and together may contain more than fifty times its total volume of liquid water. Could there be organisms living in their depths? Alien Oceans reveals the science behind the thrilling quest to find out. Kevin Peter Hand is one of today's leading NASA scientists, and his pioneering research has taken him on expeditions around the world. In this captivating account of scientific discovery, he brings together insights from planetary science, biology, and the adventures of scientists like himself to explain how we know that oceans exist within moons of the outer solar system, like Europa, Titan, and Enceladus. He shows how the exploration of Earth's oceans is informing our understanding of the potential habitability of these icy moons, and draws lessons from what we have learned about the origins of life on our own planet to consider how life could arise on these distant worlds. Alien Oceans describes what lies ahead in our search for life in our solar system and beyond, setting the stage for the transformative discoveries that may await us.

Space and Oceans

Space and Oceans PDF Author: ATF Press
Publisher: ATF Press
ISBN: 1922737526
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
There is a growing concern over the ubiquitous distribution of plastic pollution that is evolving in the Beaufort Gyre in the Arctic Ocean, prompting international collaboration and new environmental measures. Marine pollution is recognised as an immediate threat to both land and marine ecosystems. Satellites have proven useful in identifying ocean plastic patches and current movements in other oceans but little research has been applied to the Arctic, a region that impacts eight countries making up the Arctic Circle. This interdisciplinary team project investigates the use of Sentinel-2, Sentinel-6, Fourier-Transform Spectroscopy, stratospheric balloons and autonomous underwater vehicles to provide an integrated strategy, including communication and outreach, to tackling marine plastic pollution while recognizing that it is necessary to also prevent plastics from entering the ocean in the first place.

The Arctic in the Anthropocene

The Arctic in the Anthropocene PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309301866
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Once ice-bound, difficult to access, and largely ignored by the rest of the world, the Arctic is now front and center in the midst of many important questions facing the world today. Our daily weather, what we eat, and coastal flooding are all interconnected with the future of the Arctic. The year 2012 was an astounding year for Arctic change. The summer sea ice volume smashed previous records, losing approximately 75 percent of its value since 1980 and half of its areal coverage. Multiple records were also broken when 97 percent of Greenland's surface experienced melt conditions in 2012, the largest melt extent in the satellite era. Receding ice caps in Arctic Canada are now exposing land surfaces that have been continuously ice covered for more than 40,000 years. What happens in the Arctic has far-reaching implications around the world. Loss of snow and ice exacerbates climate change and is the largest contributor to expected global sea level rise during the next century. Ten percent of the world's fish catches comes from Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that up to 13 percent of the world's remaining oil reserves are in the Arctic. The geologic history of the Arctic may hold vital clues about massive volcanic eruptions and the consequent release of massive amount of coal fly ash that is thought to have caused mass extinctions in the distant past. How will these changes affect the rest of Earth? What research should we invest in to best understand this previously hidden land, manage impacts of change on Arctic communities, and cooperate with researchers from other nations? The Arctic in the Anthropocene reviews research questions previously identified by Arctic researchers, and then highlights the new questions that have emerged in the wake of and expectation of further rapid Arctic change, as well as new capabilities to address them. This report is meant to guide future directions in U.S. Arctic research so that research is targeted on critical scientific and societal questions and conducted as effectively as possible. The Arctic in the Anthropocene identifies both a disciplinary and a cross-cutting research strategy for the next 10 to 20 years, and evaluates infrastructure needs and collaboration opportunities. The climate, biology, and society in the Arctic are changing in rapid, complex, and interactive ways. Understanding the Arctic system has never been more critical; thus, Arctic research has never been more important. This report will be a resource for institutions, funders, policy makers, and students. Written in an engaging style, The Arctic in the Anthropocene paints a picture of one of the last unknown places on this planet, and communicates the excitement and importance of the discoveries and challenges that lie ahead.

Analysis of SAR Data of the Polar Oceans

Analysis of SAR Data of the Polar Oceans PDF Author: Costas Tsatsoulis
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642602827
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
This book is a collection of the most recent and significant research on algorithms for the analysis of polar sea-ice SAR data. All algorithms are implemented and tested. One chapter is from the Alaskan SAR Facility, the major NASA archive of polar SAR data and a source of many SAR analysis algorithms, including high-level results of such analyses. One chapter has been written jointly by the US and Canadian Ice Centers, which provide e.g., operational sea-ice products to the shipping and oil-drilling industries and to polar explorations. This book will be useful to all researchers in the polar sciences community.

Satellite Altimetry for Earth Sciences

Satellite Altimetry for Earth Sciences PDF Author: Frédéric Frappart
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 3038976806
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
Satellite altimetry is a radar technique for measuring the topography of the Earth’s surface. It was initially designed for measuring the ocean’s topography, with reference to an ellipsoid, and for the determination of the marine geoid. Satellite altimetry has provided extremely valuable information on ocean science (e.g., circulation surface geostrophic currents, eddy structures, wave heights, and the propagation of oceanic Kelvin and Rossby waves). With more than 25 years of observations, it is also becoming vital to climate research, providing accurate measurements of sea level variations from regional to global scales. Altimetry has also demonstrated a strong potential for geophysical, cryospheric, and hydrological research and is now commonly used for the monitoring of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheet topography and of terrestrial surface water levels. This book aims to present reviews and recent advances of general interest in the use of radar altimetry in Earth sciences. Manuscripts are related to any aspect of radar altimetry technique or geophysical applications. We also encourage manuscripts resulting from the application of new altimetric technology (SAR, SARin, and Ka band) and improvements expected from missions to be launched in the near future (i.e., SWOT).

The Routledge Handbook of Ocean Space

The Routledge Handbook of Ocean Space PDF Author: Kimberley Peters
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351619667
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 591

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Book Description
Invisible as the seas and oceans may be for so many of us, life as we know it is almost always connected to, and constituted by, activities and occurrences that take place in, on and under our oceans. The Routledge Handbook of Ocean Space provides a first port of call for scholars engaging in the ‘oceanic turn’ in the social sciences, offering a comprehensive summary of existing trends in making sense of our water worlds, alongside new, agenda-setting insights into the relationships between society and the ‘seas around us’. Accordingly, this ambitious text not only attends to a growing interest in our oceans, past and present; it is also situated in a broader spatial turn across the social sciences that seeks to account for how space and place are imbricated in socio-cultural and political life. Through six clearly structured and wide-ranging sections, The Routledge Handbook of Ocean Space examines and interrogates how the oceans are environmental, historical, social, cultural, political, legal and economic spaces, and also zones where national and international security comes into question. With a foreword and introduction authored by some of the leading scholars researching and writing about ocean spaces, alongside 31 further, carefully crafted chapters from established as well as early career academics, this book provides both an accessible guide to the subject and a cutting-edge collection of critical ideas and questions shaping the social sciences today. This handbook brings together the key debates defining the ‘field’ in one volume, appealing to a wide, cross-disciplinary social science and humanities audience. Moreover, drawing on a range of international examples, from a global collective of authors, this book promises to be the benchmark publication for those interested in ocean spaces, past and present. Indeed, as the seas and oceans continue to capture world-wide attention, and the social sciences continue their seaward ‘turn’, The Routledge Handbook of Ocean Space will provide an invaluable resource that reveals how our world is a water world.

Protecting the Polar Marine Environment

Protecting the Polar Marine Environment PDF Author: Davor Vidas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781139428149
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
How can we best protect the polar marine environment against pollution? Leading scholars on environmental law, the law of the sea, and Arctic and Antarctic affairs here examine this important question. To what extent do existing global instruments of environmental protection apply to the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean? Can the arrangements adopted at regional, sub-regional and national levels provide adequate protection? This book examines and compares various levels of regulation in protecting the marine environment of the Arctic and Antarctic, with specific attention to land-based activities, radioactive waste dumping, and shipping in ice-covered waters. Developments since the establishment of the Arctic Council in 1996 and the entry into force of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty in 1998 are also discussed. This is a volume that will appeal to polar specialists and to all those interested in environmental law and policy.

Polar Oceans Governance in an Era of Environmental Change

Polar Oceans Governance in an Era of Environmental Change PDF Author: Tim Stephens
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 178195545X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
This timely book provides a cutting-edge assessment of how the dynamic ocean regions at the highest latitudes on Earth are being managed in an era of unprecedented environmental change. The Arctic and Southern Oceans are experiencing transformative env