provided meterological data in support of an NSF-sponsored study 

 by the University of Miami and other Florida universities. 



Engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center have completed the 

 conceptual design for a small expendable ocean data buoy, which 

 can be dropped from fixed-wing aircraft. This buoy incorporated the 

 NOAA buoy transmit terminal electronics, which can telemeter data 

 to the Nimbus F satellite. In a joint project with EPA and USCG, 

 NOAA will deploy a small buoy in June 1975 to monitor water 

 quality near dump sites off Ocean City, Md. 



Remote Sensing 



Until recently, studies of the ocean environment have been 

 conducted primarily through shipboard measurements and ship- 

 deployed instrumentation. Satellites now offer us a new tool 

 whereby we can, for the first time, take a synoptic look at the oceans 

 to determine sea-surface temperatures, currents, wave heights and 

 spectra, winds, storm surges, tides, ice, chlorophyll concentrations, 

 sediment transport, shallow bathymetric features, the shape of the 

 marine geoid, and possibly even tsunamis and red tides. To 

 capitalize on this new ability, an Ocean Remote Sensing Laboratory 

 has been formed within NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and 

 Meteorological Laboratories at Miami to provide satellite planners 

 with the specifications required to construct ocean research and 

 monitoring satellites. 



During the conduct of the manned Skylab missions in 1973 and 

 1974, several oceanography investigations were carried out of 

 NASA as part of a comprehensive Earth resources study. In these 

 missions an array of remote sensors constituting the Earth Research 

 Experiment Package was carried by Skylab. Skylab photographs of 

 the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico showed the presence of 

 boundary eddies ranging indiameter from 11 to 31 kilometers. Water 

 depth measurements to about 15 meters were inferred from 

 multispectral visible scanner data obtained during a pass over 

 Puerto Rico. The thermal infrared channel of the scanner provided 

 information on ocean surface temperature variations off the 

 northwest coast of Africa, which could be correlated with an 

 upwelling area. The feasibility of acquiring information on ocean 

 surface winds from spacecraft altitudes was demonstrated by means 

 of the microwave radiometer-scatterometer instrument system on 

 Skylab. 



Emphasis is being placed by NASA on the development of active 

 microwave systems having the potential of acquiring oceanographic 

 data any time of the day or night, and under near all-weather 

 conditions. These systems will be used on Seasat A, the first of a 



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