This 1995 text is addressed to advanced students in oceanography, meteorology and environmental sciences, as well as to professional researchers in these fields. It aims to acquaint them with advances in experimental and theoretical investigations of ocean-atmosphere interactions, a rapidly developing field in earth sciences. Particular attention is paid to the scope and perspectives for satellite measurements and mathematical modeling. Approaches to the construction of coupled ocean-atmosphere models (from the simplest one-dimensional to the most comprehensive three-dimensional ones) for the solution of key problems in climate theory are discussed in detail. Field measurements and the results of numerical climate simulations are presented, to help understand the variability arising from various natural and anthropogenic factors.