lectures on the seagoing activity at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center and publicized the Web site to the educational community Our next step is to link NeMO with shorebased investigators on a full-time basis. A year long pilot project planned to begin in 1999 will install simple seafloor sensors on a pack age that will transmit data directly to shore via acoustic transmission to a surface buoy. This project is a precursor to the deployment of an autonomous underwater vehicle capa ble of conducting preprogrammed surveys, sampling or analyzing plume samples, and responding to future eruption events on com mand from shore. Only with a continuous and autonomous presence on the seafloor will investigators be able to unravel the complex interactions between ocean crust and the ocean that are unique to seafloor eruptions.

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The calibration and validation of the freeze/thaw product of NASA's proposed L-band SMAP (Soil Moisture Active and Passive) radar and radiometer mission requires execution of a strategy for characterization of thermal regime of the relevant landscape elements in terms of freeze/thaw state and the associated relationship to the microwave remote sensing signature. The goal of this study is to improve the understanding of the L-band radar backscatter processes over boreal landscapes by comparing ALOS PALSAR high resolution L-band backscatter images with Ku-band backscatter from the SeaWinds QuikSCAT scatterometer and C-, X-and Ka-band brightness temperatures from the Aqua AMSR-E radiometer. The results show that landscape elements driving the L-band backscatter are different from those at higher (Ku-band) frequencies and establishment of an optimal validation strategy for SMAP requires investigation of L-band measurements at spatial scales and temporal fidelity commensurate with landscape freeze/thaw variability.