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This work addresses the whole range of problems relating to the application of satellite technology to studies of regional seas and sea phenomena - the Gulf Stream, the Kuroshia Current - and coastal zones. It argues that to emphasize global applications is to fail to take into account fundamental idiosyncrasies specific to the regional perspective. In addition, it describes implementation techniques - data gathering; in situ data assurance, algorithms for parameter retrieval; data storage; and data output.; The book contains satellite imagery and incorporates case studies from areas such as the Baltic and the Black Sea. Key FeaturesL
* Written by the world's leading authority on the subject
* Includes rarely or never before seen colour and black and white illustrations
* Planning the execution of the Earth Observation system by the former USSR is described ... Read more

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This timely volume provides a comprehensive review of current technology for all ocean energies. It opens with an analysis of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), with and without the use of an intermediate fluid. The historical and economic background is reviewed, and the geographical areas in which this energy could be utilized are pinpointed. The production of hydrogen as a side product, and environmental consequences of OTEC plants are looked at. The competitiveness of OTEC with conventional sources of energy is analysed. Optimisation, current research and development potential are also examined.

Separate chapters provide a detailed examination of other ocean energy sources. The possible harnessing of solar ponds, ocean currents, and power derived from salinity differences is considered. There is a fascinating study of marine winds, and the question of using the ocean tides as a source of energy is examined, focussing on a number of tidal power plant projects, including data gathered from China, Australia, Great Britain, Korea and the USSR.

Wave energy extraction has excited recent interest and activity, with a number of experimental pilot plants being built in northern Europe. This topic is discussed at length in view of its greater chance of implementation. Finally, geothermal and biomass energy are considered, and an assessment of their future is given.

Each chapter contains bibliographic references. The author has also distinguished between energy schemes which might be valuable in less-industrialized regions of the world, but uneconomical in the developed countries. A large number of illustrations support the text.

Every effort has been made to ensure that the book is readable and accessible for the specialist as well as the non-expert. It will be of particular interest to energy economists, engineers, geologists and oceanographers, and to environmentalists and environmental engineers. ... Read more

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Human activities are changing habitats, the chemistry of the Earth's atmosphere and water, rate and balance of biogeochemical processes and diversity of life on the earth. This book examines the effects of metal contaminants in natural ecosystems, which are diverse, complex and often unpredictable. Establishing relationships between organism metal exposure, internal dose and associated biological effects is necessary to understand the fate and effects of metals in the environment. Furthermore, the study of marine planktonic protists in the nano-size range (2-20 um) is of great importance as these microorganisms are essential constituents of marine ecosystems and responsible for key trophic processes in the microbial food web. This book presents a comprehensive compilation of the taxonomy of these microorganisms with emphasis on their size range. Current and potential taxonomic tools for the identification of nanophytoplanktonic protists are also outlined. In addition, this book examines sediment records, that can provide much information on the paleoproductivity in past ecosystems, historical records of nutrients supplied and long term potential environmental impacts.Other chapters explore recent advances in sounding technology that use airborne optical techniques to examine seafloor topography, and innovative regional habitat creation programmes developed to plan and manage the delivery of habitat creations, and to protect or enhance the environment. ... Read more

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This book will cover the fundamental principles of measuring oceans from space, but will contain state-of-the-art developments in data analysis and interpretation and in sensors. Completely new will be material covering advances in oceanography that have grown out of remote sensing, including some of the global applications of the data. The variety of applications of remotely sensed data to ocean science has grown significantly and new areas of science are emerging to exploit the gobal datasets being recovered by satellites, particularly in relation to climate and climate change, basin-scale, air-sea interaction processes (e.g. El Niño) and the modelling, forecasting and prediction of the ocean. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Comprehensive overview of the state of the art
This book gives a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in satellite oceanography, including a brief historical review, descriptions of basic principles, instrument concepts and specifications, remote sensing methodologies, example results, and an outlook. The text is well written, and there are lots of tables, drawings, and diagrams made specifically for this book, as well as figures taken from scientific publications, including 31 color figures. Furthermore, there are many references to scientific publications for further reading. Obviously, Ian Robinson has invested a lot of work in this book, and it is a pleasure to work with it. I recommend it as textbook for students of oceanography and reference book for scientists and other interested people. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

educational and entertaining history
I had the great pleasure of taking a special college course series in the late 1970's,taught by a wonderful guest science professor, Willard Bascom. It was the best course I ever took, even after over thirty years later.The man was brilliant, experienced, clever, humble, enthusiastic, and just loved to tell us interesting stories of the peoples and battles of ancient and modern seas.He would often recite from memory some lovely historic seafaring poetry to add to the flavor.Reading this book brought back some of those special memories of that inspiring oceanographer. Very neat man.Buy this book to learn some historical oceanography as lived and written by one its pioneers.

THIS BOOK SHOULD NOT BE OUT OF PRINT!
This is a classic book! Not only for those interested in the ocean, but for those interested in LIFE. It is amazing what Willard Bascom went through - how curiosity took him through a death sentence of cancer, how he rode waves in a style the biggest-wave surfers would never DREAM of, purely in order to measure the shoreline of the western U.S. This book is a gripper, an absolute classic. READ IT if you can find a copy!

Great book about oceans and oceanographers
A real read! Highly recommended to those interested in oceans, and tracking the career of one of the most interesting scientists around. Opportunities like this could only come during this middle part of our century, and it takes a tremendous individual to take advantage and "ride the wave."

The book is well written, easy and entertaining to read, and remarkably understated. Recommended.

Oceanographer heros fight villans and display daring do.
Oceanography grew up after World War II, and its growth is the story of Willard Bascom's career. Over a span of 40 years we find him studying waves and beaches, exploring for diamonds, measuring atomic blasts, advising the U.S. Navy on amphibious operations, salvaging ships, inventing deep-sea drilling and wet suits, fighting bureaucracies, and suing the CIA. Those of us growing up reading Scientific American in the 1950's and 1960's recall him mainly as an occasional author of articles on physical oceanography and ocean technology. Bascom's technical articles were flavored them with anecdotes, characters, and impressions of the sea. Bascom's book, The Crest of the Wave {Harper and Row) approaches oceanography from the opposite direction. It is an anecdotal account of ocean exploration and science with a little hint of technical material added. The result is a science adventure complete with heros, villians, entrepeneurship, and daring do. The heros, of course, are oceanographers, who take to the hostile sea in tiny, sometimes inadequate ships fitted with ingenious, sometimes recalcitrant devices. They are "can do guys," who fight storms and sea, finagle budgets, and finesse machinery. They mortgage their houses to start businesses and make stock deals. These are 80s-style heros living in the 1950s and 60s. The villians are drawn from the usual suspects. There is Lyndon Johnson interfering with project Mohole in the interest of Brown and Root, or the CIA stealing patents, or the Government of Bahamas trying to renege on a lease, or friends and associates corrupted by the find of a treasure galleon, or a recalcitrant bureaucracy intent on protecting its prerogatives. Daring do? What sort of daring do is found in an oceanography book? There is the usual stuff. Rescuing survivors of air crashes, scientists being swept overboard and lost, the loss of the tug Collinstar with all hands in a storm on the Skeleton Coast. There is the first deep sea drilling. Bascom was commissioned by NSF to design and prove a drill ship that could drill in water 100 times deeper than any previous holes. Using only 60% of a skimpy $2.5 million budget, Bascom managed to build CUSS I, the first ship to use dynamic positioning; and a ship John Steinbeck described as having "...the clean lines of an outhouse standing on a garbage scow." Not only did dynamic positioning work perfectly in its first deep water test, it did so in 14 foot waves, force 7 winds, and strong currents. Like the early space program, it was science working in the glare of publicity. CUSS I was the forerunner of the Glomar Challenger, which by now has drilled a hundred miles of hole in every ocean and provided us with nearly all we know about history of the ocean basins. The chapter on ocean pollution is especially appropriate in view of recent renewed concern over dumping in the ocean. It provides a highly readable account on long research into the dumping of sewage and waste in the ocean. The resulting picture is very different from that portrayed by environmentalists and the media, and shows how reasonable and worthwhile goals become captive to politics and superstition. Some material is taken from his earlier books; Waves and Beaches (1964), Deep Water, Ancient Ships (1976) and A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea (1961). However, these earlier books presented but small slices of Bascom's long and varied career: Crest of the Wave provides a panorama. Even the repeated material has additional detail added. Crest of the Wave shows, in anecdotal form, what modern science is. It is very little research and solving technical problems-- very much fighting ignorance, using diplomacy, and watching one's back side. ... Read more

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352 pages. ... Read more

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This text provides integrated coverage of oceanography's four main areas: physical, chemical, geological, and biological. Includes graphics to entice students. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

basic science of a not well known field
In this book I learned about the pycnoclinezone
and the deep zone and thatthere was a lot less circulation than one might expect in the oceans.
Ocean currents and wind currents are very basic in navigation of the world's oceans.
The realization sets in that as big as the ocean is
humans can get it dirty with their wastes
just as they have the atmosphere with co2. ... Read more

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This text provides an introduction to the science of the world's oceans. With an interdisciplinary approach, it explains how the basic sciences (biology, chemistry, geology and physics, with some social sciences) influence oceanography. Ecological issues are discussed throughout. ... Read more

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Previous Edition 0763726060 ... Read more