Satellite passive microwave radiometry from beginning to the contemporary investigations

The paper contains a historical review of rise and the development of the satellite passive microwave radiometry revealing parameters of the system `Earth-atmosphere' from the very beginning in the early 1960-s, when the possibility of microwave remote sensing (RS) was theoretically substantiated and proved by the outstanding Russian scientist - physicist-optician professor Kusiel S. Shifrin who worked at that time with the Voeikov Main Geophysical Observatory, till nowadays. Some examples of new contemporary practical application of the satellite microwave survey in geophysics are described. The author had taken part in the majority of the presented and discussed studies, and some of them had been carried out in close cooperation with specialists from foreign countries including outstanding experts in RS from NASA as well as participants of the program `Inter-Kosmos' (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic and Poland).