Various satellite sensing techniques and their corresponding applications suitable for use in validation and modelling activities in BALTEX are presented and discussed. Special emphasis is given to data and mature applications available during the main BALTEX BRIDGE experiment. For atmospheric simulations and studies, sensors measuring radiation budget quantities, cloud properties, moisture content and precipitation are considered as most important. Sensors measuring ice conditions and sea state parameters are identified for oceanographical applications and sensors measuring snow conditions and surface conditions are listed for hydrological studies. One example of an application based on extracted cloud information from NOAA AVHRR imagery is demonstrated. Estimations of mean cloud conditions in summer for the period 1991-1998 are shown for the total cloud cover, Cirrus cloudiness and low-level cloudiness over the Nordic region. It is shown that the Baltic Sea and other sea surfaces in the region has a large impact in suppressing summertime cloudiness, in particular low-level cloudiness. As a contrast, cloud patterns for high-level clouds show low correlation with the spatial distribution of sea surfaces. The influence of topographic features (i.e., the Scandinavian mountain range) seems more important here. Cirrus cloudiness peak on the lee side (to the east) of mountains suggesting a frequent presence of lee-wave cirrus clouds. As a summary, the following satellites and sensors will be the main satellite data sources for BALTEX: the ScaRaB instruments on the Ressurs and METEOR satellites, the CERES instrument on the EOS-AMI satellite, the AVHRR and ATOVS sensors on the NOAA satellites. the MVIRI and SEVIRI sensors on the METEOSAT satellites, the SAR instruments on the ERS, Radarsat and ENVISAT satellites and the SSM/I instrument on the DMSP satellites. Of particular interest is also radio occultation measurements of the radio signals from the GPS satellites. The need for a central BALTEX coordination facility (a satellite data function) with the objective to compile and transfer satellite data from various processing centres to BALTEX research groups is particularly stressed.