Title

Seasat - A 25-year legacy of success

Authors

Authors

D. L. Evans; W. Alpers; A. Cazenave; C. Elachi; T. Farr; D. Glackin; B. Holt; L. Jones; W. T. Liu; W. McCandless; Y. Menard; R. Moore;E. Njoku

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Remote Sens. Environ.

Keywords

Seasat; Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer; synthetic aperture; radar; SYNTHETIC-APERTURE RADAR; MULTICHANNEL MICROWAVE RADIOMETER; A SATELLITE; SCATTEROMETER; SHUTTLE IMAGING RADAR; ANTARCTIC ICE-SHEET; SIR-C/X-SAR; ERS WIND SCATTEROMETER; OCEAN SURFACE; SOIL-MOISTURE; EASTERN SAHARA; Environmental Sciences; Remote Sensing; Imaging Science & Photographic; Technology

Abstract

Thousands of scientific publications and dozens of textbooks include data from instruments derived from NASA's Seasat. The Seasat mission was launched on June 26, 1978, on an Atlas-Agena rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base. It was the first Earth-orbiting satellite to carry four complementary microwave experitnents-the Radar Altimeter (ALT) to measure ocean surface topography by measuring spacecraft altitude above the ocean surface; the Seasat-A Satellite Scatterometer (SASS), to measure wind speed and direction over the ocean; the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) to measure surface wind speed, ocean surface temperature, atmospheric water vapor content, rain rate, and ice coverage; and the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), to image the ocean surface, polar ice caps, and coastal regions. While originally designed for remote sensing of the Earth's oceans, the legacy of Seasat has had a profound impact in many other areas including solid earth science, hydrology, ecology and planetary science.

Journal Title

Remote Sensing of Environment

Volume

94

Issue/Number

3

Publication Date

1-1-2005

Document Type

Review

Language

English

First Page

384

Last Page

404

WOS Identifier

WOS:000226879900010

ISSN

0034-4257

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