Why study the oceans from space?
Before we jump into the main subject of this presentation, it might be helpful to understand how we have learned what we know about the oceans in the past and how we are doing this today. Being an oceanographer and working for NASA has more often than not seriously confused people. My standard reply when asked what an oceanographer is doing at NASA is to say that I study the oceans from space. At that point, people generally shake their heads and look at me in a very puzzled way and ask “why do you have to launch a satellite to study the oceans? Wouldn’t it just be easier to go out in a boat and look at it?”. Well, for many things that we want to learn about the oceans that is indeed true. Getting ‘up close and personal’ with the thing that you want to study is generally the best way to go but sometimes, it is necessary to take a step back and get a better view. In this case, stepping back means to step way back, more than 700 kilometers back, and straight up into space. Most of what w
