Since the late 1960s, various groups have investigated the influence of marine surface films on mechanisms dominating energy and mass transfer across the ocean/atmosphere interface. However, a compendium summarizing the state-of-the-art research in this field is still missing. The book fills this gap and transfers the accumulated knowledge to the scientific community. After a brief historical chapter basic chemical insights are presented, followed by theoretical and experimental approaches carried out in laboratory facilities. Air-sea interaction experiments are then described and finally, remote sensing applications with sea slicks and crude oil spills are presented.

Inhalt
General Section.- Oil on troubled waters a historical survey.- Carlo Marangoni and the Laboratory of Physics at the High School Liceo Classico Dante in Firenze (Italy).- Tribute to Erik John Bock.- Chemical Characteristics of Sea Slicks and Oil Spills.- Basic physicochemical principles of monomolecular sea slicks and crude oil spills.- New chemical insights into the structure and morphology of sea slicks and their geophysical interpretations.- Sea slicks: variability in chemical composition and surface elasticity.- Correlation studies of mass spectral patterns and elasticity of sea-slick materials.- On surface renewal and sea slicks.- Chemical Characteristics.- Physicochemical effects of the marine microlayer on air-sea gas transport.- Static and dynamic surface tension of marine water: onshore or platform-based measurements by the oscillating bubble tensiometer.- Multiple scattering of surface waves by two-dimensional colloid systems.- Laboratory study of the damping of parametric ripples due to surfactant films.- Wave tank study of phase velocities and damping of gravity-capillary wind waves in the presence of surface films.- Laboratory measurements of artificial rain impinging on slick-free and slick-covered water surfaces.- Imaging surfactant concentration distribution at the air/water interface.- Imaging surfactant concentration distributions at the air/water interface.- Modelling and Air-Sea Interactions.- Variability of the wave number spectra of short surface waves in the ocean and their modulation due to internal waves and natural slicks.- On the imaging of biogenic and anthropogenic surface films on the sea by radar sensors.- Slick radar image modelling with an extended VIERS-1 wave spectrum.- Thermal imagery of surface renewal phenomena.-Infrared imaging: a novel tool to investigate the influence of surface slicks on air-sea gas transfer.- Remote Sensing Applications.- Detection of oil spills by airborne sensors.- Satellite monitoring of accidental and deliberate marine oil pollution.- Long-term microwave radar monitoring of ocean slicks at low grazing angles.- Oil spills on ALMAZ-1 and ERS-1 SAR images: results from the DOSE-91 experiment.- Estimation of average surface currents from ERS SAR images of oil-tank cleaning spills.