Advanced remote sensing capabilities provide unprecedented opportunities for monitoring, studying, and forecasting the ocean environment. An integrated approach for synthesizing remote sensing data with in situ measurements and ocean models is highly desirable, both for physical and biological oceanography, polar oceanography and for marine gravity and geodesy on the regional, basin and global scales. This session provides a forum for interdisciplinary discussions of the latest advances in all aspects of oceanographic applications of remote sensing.

We welcome contributions on all aspects of the remote sensing of the ocean. Topics for this session include but are not limited to: physical oceanographic variability and interactions with the atmosphere, ocean currents and winds, biological variability and the carbon cycle; sub-mesoscale processes, marine gravity and space geodesy, advances in the measurement and interpretation of the ocean surface salinity, and new instrument and techniques development in ocean remote sensing. Applications of multi-sensor observations to study ocean and climate processes and applications using international (virtual) constellations of satellites are also welcome.

A topic of interest for this year's Ocean Remote Sensing session is the multi-scale nature of the ocean. Ocean processes interactions occur at a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. The ocean influences climate and weather at different scales. Existing ocean models are driven and evaluated using remote sensing data, activities which should improve the ability of expected future models to handle finer spatial and temporal scales. Studies covering the role of remote sensing in these topics and the current and expected temporal and spatial sampling and resolution capabilities of ocean remote sensing are specially welcome.

Nicolas Reul (Ifremer, France), will give a sollicited talk: "An overview of new insights from satellite salinity missions on oceanography"