Hirohiko Masunaga is an associate professor at the Institute for Space–Earth Environmental Research (ISEE) of Nagoya University. After earning his Ph.D. in astronomy from The University of Tokyo, he pursued his career as an atmospheric scientist there in the National Aerospace Development Administration (NASDA, currently the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA) and at Colorado State University before he joined Nagoya University in 2006. His research interests include satellite meteorology and climatology, tropical convection and large-scale dynamics, tropical air–sea interactions, and the development of a satellite data simulator. In his recent work, he devised a novel methodology to coordinate the observations from different satellites beyond their individual instrument capabilities in order to explore the dynamics of tropical moist convection.

• Introduction.- Satellite Missions and Instruments.- Satellite Orbit and Scan.- Principles of Statistical Mechanics.- Principles of Electrodynamics and Geometrical Optics.- General Theory of Radiative Processes.- Infrared Sensing.- Visible/Near-infrared Imaging.- Microwave Radiometry.- Active Remote Sensing.- Mathematical Basis of Retrieval Algorithms.- Global datasets of clouds and precipitation.- Satellite Data Simulators.

Hirohiko Masunaga is an associate professor at the Institute for Space–Earth Environmental Research (ISEE) of Nagoya University. After earning his Ph.D. in astronomy from The University of Tokyo, he pursued his career as an atmospheric scientist there in the National Aerospace Development Administration (NASDA, currently the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA) and at Colorado State University before he joined Nagoya University in 2006. His research interests include satellite meteorology and climatology, tropical convection and large-scale dynamics, tropical air–sea interactions, and the development of a satellite data simulator. In his recent work, he devised a novel methodology to coordinate the observations from different satellites beyond their individual instrument capabilities in order to explore the dynamics of tropical moist convection.

• Introduction.- Satellite Missions and Instruments.- Satellite Orbit and Scan.- Principles of Statistical Mechanics.- Principles of Electrodynamics and Geometrical Optics.- General Theory of Radiative Processes.- Infrared Sensing.- Visible/Near-infrared Imaging.- Microwave Radiometry.- Active Remote Sensing.- Mathematical Basis of Retrieval Algorithms.- Global datasets of clouds and precipitation.- Satellite Data Simulators.

Hirohiko Masunaga is an associate professor at the Institute for Space–Earth Environmental Research (ISEE) of Nagoya University. After earning his Ph.D. in astronomy from The University of Tokyo, he pursued his career as an atmospheric scientist there in the National Aerospace Development Administration (NASDA, currently the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA) and at Colorado State University before he joined Nagoya University in 2006. His research interests include satellite meteorology and climatology, tropical convection and large-scale dynamics, tropical air–sea interactions, and the development of a satellite data simulator. In his recent work, he devised a novel methodology to coordinate the observations from different satellites beyond their individual instrument capabilities in order to explore the dynamics of tropical moist convection.

• Introduction.- Satellite Missions and Instruments.- Satellite Orbit and Scan.- Principles of Statistical Mechanics.- Principles of Electrodynamics and Geometrical Optics.- General Theory of Radiative Processes.- Infrared Sensing.- Visible/Near-infrared Imaging.- Microwave Radiometry.- Active Remote Sensing.- Mathematical Basis of Retrieval Algorithms.- Global datasets of clouds and precipitation.- Satellite Data Simulators.