It was agreed at the 6th Landsat Ground Stations Operations Working Group (LGSOWG) meeting held at Stockholm in 1978 to adopt a standard CCT format applicable not only to Landsat but also to other remotely sensed data. After three years preparation by the Committee of Change Contral Board (CCB) a new format has been completed.
The basic structure of the new format consists of "Super Structure" beginning with a volume directory file which specifies the content of the data. Complying with the request of the users that a dramatic change should not be made, the new format is easy to access for those who are familiar with the present Landsat CCT format.

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This paper is concerned with investigation of water exchange mechanism of Ofunato bay by using remote sensing. Located in the east coast of northen Honshu, Japan, Ofunato bay has a strongly closed topographical features due to anti-tsunami breakwater. Since 1978, remote sensing observations have been performed to investigate water quality of the bay under various tide conditions of four seasons. Based on thermal band image data and surface truth data collected, water exchange mechanism of the bay was estimated. This result was confirmed by water quality data in the past and experiments by using model tank. Ofunato bay has been an excellent field of cultivation fishery (oyster and scallop), and these results will provide relevant informations to future plans of its water quality preservation. Remote sensing is one of the most effective techniques for water quality investigation.

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This paper describes a method for obtaining an earth surface temperature map from the thermal IR data of NOAA-6/AVHRR, and discusses two examples from the Kansai and Chubu districts of Japan from the view point of seasonal and geographical characteristics. Geometrical transformation of raw AVHRR data into a 1: 1, 000, 000 scaled map of the Geographical Survey Institute, was performed in a limited area, through both tangent and projective transformations. Geometrical accuracy verified at 14 ground control points in the area was found about 1.2 pixels in standard deviation. On the other hand, earth surface temperature measures were obtained through two stages. Namely, the brightness temperature from AVHRR counts was converted into the normal earth temperature through compensation for atmospheric effects, and checked at two ground points. Estimation errors were found approximately ±2.0° K both on the sea surface and on the top of snow capped mountains. Finally seasonal and geographical characteristics of earth surface temperatures are discussed as follows:
1. On the opposite side of the mountain, there is revealed a distinct difference of earth surface temperature due to received sunlight.
2. The increase of earth surface temperature in urbanized ares seems to depend upon spectral characteristics relating to radiation balance on the surface.
3. Water temperature in winter depends clearly upon the water depth.
4. At some portions of mountain sides, an anormalous hot temperature was detected. This phenomenon seems to be a sort of local Phene.

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Synthetic Aperture Radar is expected to be as one of the principal tools for remote sensing.
This tutorial paper prepared for reserchers of various fields, outlines its theory, system, charact-eristics, application and examples.
About 700 of categorically assorted references are also provided for the readers' convenience.

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