Christian Mätzler is Titularprofessor in applied physics and remote sensing at the Institute of Applied Physics, University of Bern. He has conducted research at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and at the ETH, Zurich. Returning to the University of Bern in 1978 he now leads the Project Group Radiometry for environmental monitoring on the propagation, emission and scattering of electromagnetic radiation in snow and ice, soil and vegetation, and in the atmosphere for the advancement of remote sensing with emphasis on microwave radiometry. Christian Matzler is a member of the International Astronomical Union, the International Glaciological Society, the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society of IEEE, the Swiss Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Swiss Commission of Remote Sensing, and the Swiss Commission of Space Research. He also is an active member of advisory groups at the European Space Agency (ESA) and EUMETSAT.

• Chapter 1: Radiative transfer and microwave radiometryChapter 2: Emission and spectroscopy of the clear atmosphereChapter 3: Emission and scattering by clouds and precipitationChapter 4: Surface emissionChapter 5: Dielectric properties of natural mediaAppendices