Passive Microwave Remote Sensing of the Earth

Physical Foundations

Eugene A. Sharkov

Passive Microwave Remote Sensing of the Earth represents the most comprehensive description of the physical foundations of methods and instruments in the field of passive remote sensing applied to investigations of the Earth, Solar System bodies and space. Emphasis is placed on the physical aspects necessary to judge the possibilities and limitations of passive remote sensing methods in the cases of specific observations. Numerous practical applications and illustrations are given from the most up-to-date airspace experiments. This book was conceived as both a textbook about radiophysical methods in the remote sensing of the Earth and a reference work giving a systematized idea of the possibilities and modern achievements of the microwave diagnostics method. As such, it is intended for a wide range of specialists and other interested readers.

Readership: Undergraduate and postgraduate students of geography, meteorology, climatology, atmospheric physics, geophysics, oceanography, tropical agriculture and environmental science. Professional scientists, environmentalists and engineers concerned with tropical ecosystems, and government agencies and industries involved with management, planning and hazard assessment in tropical regions.

Professor Eugene A. Sharkov received his Ph.D. in Physics from Moscow State University in 1968 and became Professor of Physics and Geophysics in the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow in 1990. He has worked as Senior Researcher in that Institute and as Head of the Remote Sensing Laboratory from 1968 to the present. He is recognised as a leading scientist in the field of tropical studies, and is the author of more than 140 scientific papers and research-orientated texts. He has led several scientific expeditions to the tropics as part of major research projects.

Table of contents:

Preface
List of Figures, Plates and Tables
1. Scientific and applied rationales of remote sensing study
2. Random signals and fields
3. Microwave radiometers: functions, design concepts, characteristics
4. Thermal fluctuations and their fundamental laws
5. Emission fields and antenna systems
6. Black-body radiation
7. Grey-body radio-emission
8. Dielectric and emissive properties of terrestrial surfaces
9. Foundations of radiative transfer theory
10. Electromagnetic properties of disperse media
11. Selective radiation
12. Radiative properties of the terrestrial `surface-atmosphere' system
13. Inversion problems for passive microwave measurements
14. Passive microwave space missions
Conclusion
Appendix A - The International System of Units (SI units)
Appendix B - Fundamental theorems and correlations of Fourier spectrum analysis
References and bibliography
Index

Extent: 656 pages (4-page colour section)
Binding: hardback
Publication Date: December 2003
ISBN: 978-3-540-43946-2

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