Satellite Monitoring Of Inland And Coastal Water Quality Retrospection, Introspection, Future Directions

A warning and wake-up call serve as a prelude to Satellite Monitoring of Inland and Coastal Water Quality: Retrospection, Introspection, Future Directions, a science monograph written because of a passion for space monitoring of optically complex natural waters and the frustrations that arise from this passion not being shared by the targeted end-usership of the water quality products that emerge from that passion. Although this book was written around a spectrum of thoughts and emotions that pervade (and often torture) the mind of the author, he contends (and hopes) that these thoughts and emotions are not merely self-imaging, but rather that they fairly and genu¬inely portray the passions and frustrations of colleagues and friends with whom he has shared all or parts of the greater than three-decade odyssey comprising the remote sensing of optically complex inland waters. Therefore, throughout this book, the author will, although somewhat presumptuously, write in the conversational first-person plural "we" (as well as in the detached and impersonal third person) and forsake the egoistical first- person, singular "I."Retrospection and introspection — as well as personal (and thus contro¬ versial) conjurations arising therefrom — will form the basis of our attempts o probe reasons for the uneasiness that appears to shroud the acceptance of remote sensing of inland and coastal water quality as a genuine, respected, and valued component of environmental monitoring. Inarguably, introspec¬tion of an impassioned object and retrospection of probable causes for the uneasiness in which it is envisaged could result in indiscriminate z/finger- pointing." Although fingers will be pointed, this is not intended to be indis¬criminate or to cast aspersions. Science and technology are independent and pure entities that search for truth and inventiveness. However, they must adjust to and coexist with the public that supports them. As such, scientific truth and technological invention become modulated by the mind-sets (and