On a planet where three-fourths of the surface is covered by ocean, monitoring ocean currents is vital for a number of reasons (Churnside). Ocean currents affect climate, transportation, recreation, the food supply, and even pharmaceuticals (Churnside). Yet understanding the ocean has been difficult because of the ocean's extreme depth and the lack of appropriate means for taking measurements of it (Churnside). Fortunately, however, sensor technology has made it easier to probe the ocean and monitor its currents, temperature, salinity, color, sea surface height, bathymetry, and the "distribution and abundance of biota" (Churnside). Everything from "optical imagers and acoustics on submersibles and surface ships" to "LIDAR, radar, multi- and hyper-spectral imagers, and optical and microwave radiometers on aircraft" exists today in ocean-monitoring venues. However, these sensors must be mounted on a vessel and taken to the section of ocean to be monitored. Given the vast size of the world's oceans, this means that very little of the ocean can be monitored at a time using these types of sensors. The ability to monitor an entire ocean at once using these sensors does not exist. Therefore, remote ocean sensing via satellite provides a valuable option allowing scientists to look at much larger sections of the ocean and get a better idea of how the ocean functions overall. This paper will discuss ocean remote sensing, its history, applications, and pertinent details.
Ocean remote sensing would not be possible without man's venture into space and the launching of satellites. Morain (1998) notes that "the first person who believed that not only machines, but humans too, could venture into space was Jules Verne, a French provincial lawyer with no scientific or technical training" (28). According to Morain, Verne "made the extraordinary prediction that a rocket would be launched from Florida by means of chemical propu...