Editor: 
SIGMUND SPJELKAVIK 

Proceedings of the Second Circumpolar Symposium 
on Remote Sensing of Arctic Environments, Tromsa, 
4-6 May, 1992 

Remote sensing of polar environments has received increased attention and interest in the 
last years. The role of the Arctic and the Antarctic in the global circulation system of air and 
water masses, the sensitive and fragile ecosystems that meet serious threats from pollution 
and other human impacts, and the huge amount of information about the past changing 
climates stored in the vast ice sheets and glaciers call for international management and 
monitoring programs. 

Remote sensing from satellites is the only realistic way to collect regular information of the 
environments from the devastated, mostly unpopulated and hostile, areas around the poles. 
Today’s satellites with polar orbits and tomorrow’s polar platforms increase the importance 
of satellite remote sensing of these parts of the earth. New technology makes it possible to 
assess the polar regions even through the polar nights. 

The Second Circumpolar Symposium on Remote Sensing of Arctic Environments held in 
Troms~i in May 1992 focused on remote sensing applications in the Arctic and Antarctic, with 
special emphasis on environmental monitoring and resource mapping. It followed the first 
and successful symposium held in Yellowknife, Canada, in 1990. T h o r b j ~ r n  Berntsen, the 
Norwegian Minister of the Environment, opened the symposium in T r o m s ~  where more 
than 110 scientists from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Estonia, Russia, 
Switzerland, France, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway attended. The symposium was 
organized by the University of T r o m s ~ ,  T r o m s ~  Satellite Station, Akvaplan-niva A/S and the 
Foundation of Applied Research at the University of T r o m s ~  with financial support from the 
Norwegian Polar Institute, the County of Troms, the Ministry of the Environment and the 
Ministry of Education and Research. 

This special issue of Polar Research, with selected papers from the symposium in T r o m s ~ ,  
has become possible in cooperation with the Norwegian Polar Institute. We are grateful to 
Mary Berge for her work with the manuscripts, to the referees and to the authors. Without 
their help, this issue would not have materialized. Grateful thanks are extended to the referees 
and the authors who contributed to this publication and to the speakers and the other 
participants who made the symposium an accomplishment. 

Finally, we wish t o  thank Director Frits Jensen of the Roald Amundsen Centre for Arctic 
Research at the University of TromsB, and the secretary, Lillian J ~ r g e n s e n ,  who were 
responsible for the makeup of the supporting staff and the administration of the symposium. 

6 April 1994 

Sigmund Spjelkavik 
University of T r o m s ~