This volume is based on the proceedings of the COSPAR/SCOR/ IUCRM Symposium "Oceanography From Space" held in May 1980 in Venice, Italy. COSPAR (The Committee for Space Research) suggested holding a joint symposium with SCOR (The Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research) as a major review of space oceanography. Since this meeting fitted well with a series of colloquia organized by the IUCRM (The Inter-Union Commission on Radio Meteorology), these three bodies joined in sponsoring the meeting. The conference was hald 16 years after the first discussions of possible spaceborne observations of the ocean at a meeting organized in 1964 in Woods Hole. Gifford'Ewing was then keen to see oceanography benefit from the new satellite technology being developed, and he begins this volume by noting that most of the suggestions put forward in 1964 have now, at last, been successfully demonstrated in practice. The papers that follow show the variety of measurement techniques available or possible, and many of the types of studies in which they can be used. Papers are arranged in a general section, and in 6 specialized sections each of which starts with a brief introduction summarizing important results.