Unclassified 



Security Classification 



[Security classific 



DOCUMENT CONTROL DATA -R&D 



3/ title, body ol abstract arid indexing annotation must be entered when the ov 



ORIGINATING ACTI 



(Corporate author) 



U. S. Naval Oceanographic Office 

 Washington, D. C. 20390 



2a. REPORT SECURITY CLASSIFICATION 



Unclassified 



3. REPOR1 



SATELLITES CAPABLE OF OCEAJIOGRAPHIC 

 DATA ACQUISITION — A REVIEW 



1 DESCRIPTIVE NOTES (Type of report and inclusive dates) 



Technical Report (TR 215) 



5. AUTHOR{S) (First name, middle initial, last name) 



Paul E. LaViolette and Sandra E. Seim 



6- REPOR T D A TE 



May 1969 



8a. CONTRACT OR GRANT NO- 



none 



fa. PROJEC T NO. 



TOTAL NO. OF PAGES 



9a. ORIGINATOR'S REPORT NUMBER(S) 



7b. NO. OF R E FS 



6i_ 



TR 215 



10. DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT 



This docimient has unlimited distrihution. 



SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 



12. SPONSORING MILITARY ACTIVIT-t 



U. S. Naval Oceanographic Office 



Satellites currently capable of acquiring oceanographic data are limited to those 

 which record information hy infrared radiometry, "by television or hy photography. 

 Although other methods of oceanographic data acquisition from space are possible, 

 these are the only methods in present use. 



The use of infrared radiometry to examine the sea's surface thermal structure has 

 been limited to the Ninbus satellites. Cloud interference has hampered the utility of 

 these data; however, a selective method of compositing several days ' data has indi- 

 cated that this difficulty is partially surmountable. 



Black and white television pictures of the entire earth's surface have come from 

 polar orbited Nimbus and ESSA satellites while color and black and white pictures of 

 the entire earth disc have been received from geo-synchronous ATS satellites. These 

 television pictures may be used to measure the extent of ice cover and to infer water 

 structure from related cloud cover. ESSA satellite data have been enhanced further by 

 computer treatment of the televised pictures. 



Color photographs of selected ocean areas have been taken during Mercui-y, Gemini, 

 and Apollo missions. These missions are inherently restricted and the oceanographic 

 infonnation gained is opportune temporally and geographically. Despite this, exami- 

 nation of spacecraft photographs has revealed abundant examples of surface water 

 structure . 



DD 



1473 



(PAGE 



Unclassified 



S/N 0101-807-6801 



Security Classification 



