The results of satellite monitoring of pollution in the Russian sector of the Azov-Black Sea basin in 2003-2007 are considered. Within the framework of this work, a technology of monitoring the state and pollution of the water environment from satellite information received during this period from Russian and foreign satellites has been developed. With this technology, the coastal pollution parameters and hydrometeorological characteristics of the water environment in the area of observation were mapped operationally; 14 types of different satellite information products were issued daily; and the results were generalized over 3 days, ten days, a month, and a period of observation. Long-term satellite monitoring makes it possible to determine and analyze typical situations of pollution distribution in the coastal waters and to detect new circulation elements that transport pollutants, thus purifying the water environment. For example, for the first time, it was found from satellite data that the contribution of a small-scale circulation of waters of the Russian sector of the Black Sea to the transport and distribution of pollutants is commensurable with the contribution of the Main Black Sea Current and coastal anticyclonic eddies. The regularities in the dynamics of pollution distribution promote the increased reliability of charting of the environmental situation, including the prediction of dynamics of pollution spreading.

The principal results of many years of experience in work on the use of satellite radar data in solving problems in hydrometeorology and environmental monitoring are presented. This experience shows that the aforementioned information has come into most widespread use when solving problems involved in the monitoring of ice conditions in the Earth's polar regions. In the final analysis, satellite radar images have become the principal source of information in support for hydrometeorological work in the Arctic and Antarctica, and are important in climatological studies as well.

No abstract

In accordance with the contract of the LUKOIL Oil Company, a cooperation of the Roshydromet organizations (Planeta Research Center for Space Hydrometeorology, a main contractor, Hydrometeorological Research Center of the Russian Federation, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, and State Oceanographic Institute) carried out in 2008 complex studies of the hydrometeorological and ice conditions for the Filanovskii oil-and gas-field facility construction on the northwestern shelf of the Caspian Sea. Three expeditions were organized and conducted within that project: a helicopter ice research expedition (specialists from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute carried out a huge volume of measurements of physicomechanic properties of level, rafted and hummocked ice, and morphometric characteristics of ice piling, hummocks, and stamukhas); specialists from the State Oceanographic Institute organized a ship expedition on studying sea ground exaration formed due to impacts of ice formations (hummocks and stamukhas) using hydro-radar and echo-sounder surveys as well as a complex hydrometeorological and hydrochemical expedition with five autonomous buoy stations mounted in two months. From the moment of ice formation to the end of the expedition activity, an operational space monitoring of the northwestern Caspian Sea was carried out at the Planeta Research Center for Space Hydrometeorology. Based on the NOAA, TERRA, and AQUA satellite data, corrected and geographically fixed satellite images of the area of activity were issued with a periodicity of 6 times per day; index maps on the ice situation (twice a week) and ice situation forecasts (lead-time of 1-7 days). Besides, long-term series of satellite data on the northwestern Caspian Sea are collected and processed: their results are used for estimating seasonal and interannual variability of the drift ice and fast ice. Specialists of the Hydrometeorological Research Center of the Russian Federation completed the work on processing and analysis of library materials, research/technical reports, handbooks, expedition observational data, and on hydrodynamic and probability modeling of long-term series of hydrological, meteorological, and partly ice data. In particular, basic characteristics of the hydrological regime (sea level, currents, and waving) are calculated for the place of the oil platform location and along the pipeline routing. Tentative local specifications on the hydrometeorological regime in the Filanovskii field are worked out based on the results of the work performed.

A new approach aimed at a better understanding of the state of pollution of the Black Sea coastal zone is suggested. It consists of the combined use of all available quasi-concurrent satellite information (NOAA AVHRR, TOPEX/ Poseidon, Jason-1, Terra/Aqua MODIS, Envisat ASAR, ERS-2 SAR and QuikSCAT) and was first applied during an operational seawater monitoring campaign in the coastal zone of the northeastern Black Sea conducted in 2006. The monitoring is based on daily receiving, processing and analysis of data different in nature (microwave radar images, optical and infrared data), resolution and surface coverage. These data allow us to retrieve information on seawater pollution, sea surface and air-sea boundary layer conditions, seawater temperature and suspended matter distributions, chlorophyll-a concentration, mesoscale water dynamics, near-surface wind, and surface wave fields. Such an approach helps in oil spill detection with synthetic aperture radar (SAR), especially in distinguishing oil slicks from look-alikes. The focus is on coastal seawater circulation mechanisms and their impact on the evolution of pollutants.