Marine geoid modelling in the Atlantic coastal region of Argentina is problematic. Firstly, because of the insufficient amount of available shipborne gravity data, which renders a purely gravimetric solution not feasible. Secondly, because of the very strong ocean currents, that affect the quality of satellite altimetry data, so that a purely altimetrie model is too noisy, even after low-pass filtering the Sea Surface Heights (SSHs) to remove (part of) the influence of the oceanographic signals. Thus, the recommended solution is to employ a combination method and the use of all the available gravity and altimetry data together. This is a suitable solution since (i) combination methods such as least squares collocation and Input Output System Theory (!OST) inherently low-pass filter and weigh the data, and (ii) will make use of the altimetrie heights to fill the gaps of the shipborne gravity data. Following this idea, purely altimetrie, gravimetric and combined (using the !OST method) marine geoid models have been estimated for Argentina, employing all available shipborne gravity data, satellite altimetry SSHs and the latest Earth Gravity Models (EGMs) developed from CHAMP and GRACE missions. The new EGMs are especially useful to assess the quality of the new geoid models, especially against EGM96, which was used in an older ERSl-only solution for the same area. From the comparison of the estimated geoid models with respect to stacked TOPEX/Poseidon SSHs, the authors found that the altimetrie model provides the best agreement while the combined one improves the accuracy (I a) of the gravimetric solution.

The possibilities of remote sensing techniques in the field of the Earth surface monitoring and protection specifically for the problems caused by petroleum contaminations, for the mapping of insufficiently plugged and abandoned old oil wells and for the analysis of onshore oil seeps are described. Explained is the methodology for analyzing and detection of potential hydrocarbon contaminations using the Earth observation in the area of interest in Slovakia (Korňa) and in Czech Republic (Nesyt), mainly building and calibrating the spectral library for oil seeps. The acquisition of the in-situ field data (ASD, Cropscan spectroradiometers) for this purpose, the successful building and verification of hydrocarbon spectral library, the application of hydrocarbon indexes and use of shift in red-edge part of electromagnetic spectra, the spectral analysis of input data are clarified in the paper. Described is approach which could innovate the routine methods for investigating the occurrence of hydrocarbons and can assist during the mapping and locating the potential oil seep sites. Important outcome is the successful establishment of a spectral library (database with calibration data) suitable for further application in data classification for identifying the occurrence of hydrocarbons.

One of the fundamental problems of modern geodesy is precise de fi nition of the gravitational fi eld and its changes in time. This is essential in positioning and navigation, geophysics, geodynamics, oceanography and other sciences related to the climate and Earth’s environment. One of the major sources of gravity data is satellite altimetry that provides gravity data with almost 75% surface of the Earth. Satellite altimetry also provides data to study local, regional and global geophysical processes, the geoid model in the areas of oceans and seas. This technique can be successfully used to study the ocean mean dynamic topography. The results of the investigations and possible products of altimetry will provide a good material for the GGOS (Global Geodetic Observing System) and institutions of IAS (International Altimetry Service). This paper presents the achievements in satellite altimetry in all the above disciplines obtained in the last years. First very shorly basic concept of satellite altimetry is given. In order to obtain the highest accuracy on range measurements over the ocean improved of altimetry waveforms performed on the ground is described. Next, signi fi cant improvements of sea and ocean gravity anomalies models developed presently is shown. Study of sea level and its extremes examined, around European and Australian coasts using tide gauges data and satellite altimetry measurements were described. Then investigations of the phenomenon of the ocean tides, calibration of altimeters, studies of rivers and ice-sheets in the last years are given.