Spacecraft global oceanographic mission requirements

To the layman, it is often difficult to perceive how a spacecraft orbiting the earth at some 500 miles above the sea surface can be even moderately successful in analyzing conditions which, as many oceanographers will attest, are difficult to measure in situ. Remote sensing, however, offers a unique means for satisfaction of many important global oceanographic requirements. Further, new methodology developed as a result of initial ocean-dedicated spacecraft flights combined with instrumentation improvements will provide information even more profound than is now possible. This paper considers global oceanographic information requirements, corresponding measurements, associated spacecraft sensor/payload concepts and orbital requirements.