How Canada’s Ocean Community Uses Earth-observation Satellites
Release Date: 18 May 2006

The overall objective of ocean observing is to characterize the marine water column and its boundaries, in time and the three dimensions of space, both for civilian and military purposes. It is largely a matter of public good and therefore is largely a matter of providing information to public agencies and the academic community. On behalf of the Canadian Space Agency, in 2005 OEA Technologies Incorporated produced a report that describes ocean observing. It focuses on Canada's use of Earth-observation satellites, but also describes emerging U.S. ocean observing infrastructure.

Presently, the Earth-observation aspect of ocean observing is focusing on the surface waters of the coastal ocean. Established and emerging applications are listed here along with the types of satellites sensors that are used for ocean observing. Earth-observation sensors also observe human-induced surface features such as ships and oil slicks, and are used to initialize, constrain and validate marine environmental forecasting models. This information is critical to a broad range of activities having socio-economic value.

Most ocean observing systems are publicly funded. From an operational perspective, the navies of NATO and meteorological forecasting agencies are leading the field. From a research perspective, the American university community has established significant infrastructure and political momentum. As a result, in a number of areas universities are driving the advancement of ocean observing, nationally and globally.

The Canadian Space Agency’s Earth-observation program has resulted in Canadian spaceborne synthetic aperture radar expertise and an ocean observing niche in ice monitoring, oil spill and ship detection.