Use of LIDAR systems in measuring certain physical oceanographic parameters

Remote sensing techniques, such as LIDAR, are the only observation methods which are capable of fast scanning over a vast area to produce synoptic views which are necessary for time and space study of the ocean. However, due to the very nature of the way data are collected, all the information thus obtained is confined, to or in the immediate neighborhood of the surface. Nevertheless, all the physical processes in the ocean are controlled mainly by both surface and subsurface parameters; they act and interact among themselves and produce the phenomena we actually observe in time and space. Remote sensing techniques are very effective for those phenomena controlled by surface parameters which account for most of the crucial problems in physical oceanography.