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.

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.