EAS 3540

Ocean Satellite Remote Sensing

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

The goal of the course is to teach participants the basic skills needed to work independently to acquire, analyze and visualize data sets derived from a variety of satellite sensors that provide global estimates of phytoplankton abundance, sea surface temperature ocean wind speeds, and geostrophic currents. An important feature of the course is to develop good Python programming skills that are needed to effectively analyze and visualize satellite data to answer important oceanographic questions. Background lectures will cover the fundamentals of bio-optics, phytoplankton pigment algorithms and, to a lesser extent, the underlying physical principals leading to the measurement of sea surface temperature, ocean wind speed and geostrophic currents. The 3-credit class is taught in an intensive format for 9 weeks with 150 minutes of lecture time and 4hr and 50min of computer lab time each week.

Prerequisites one course in marine science or permission of instructor.

Distribution Requirements (DLG-AG, OPHLS-AG, PSC-AG), (PHS-AS)

Last 4 Terms Offered 2024SP, 2022SP, 2020SP, 2018SP

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