ABSTRACT

Atmospheric moisture is second only in importance to energy as a vital element in all the fundamental processes of the atmosphere. Atmospheric moisture has its significance in differentiating regions climatologically. Many aspects of the moisture patterns of the atmosphere affect the other environmental factors in the natural home of man. Evaluations of mean cloud cover from earth-orbiting satellites may seem at first sight to be statistics singularly easy to compile, but comparatively uninteresting except in an encyclopaedic sense. Scientists and engineers are developing many instruments for use in earth-orbiting satellites to record a wide variety of earth resources. In particular, remote sensors are being designed to map aspects of global mineralogy, hydrology, oceanography and agriculture from platforms such as the Earth Resources Technology Satellites and manned space stations like Skylab. Many such sensors investigate primarily through the visible, near infra-red, and far infra-red portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.