GCOS Reference Upper-Air Network

Title

Field Measurements for Passive Environmental Remote Sensing, Chapter 12 - Land-based cal/val campaigns

Authors

Lori A. Borg, Ruud J. Dirksen, Robert O. Knuteson,

Published

by Elsevier at 2022

Abstract

This chapter presents a partial summary of the state of the art in land-based field measurements that are used for comparison with the satellite sensors deployed at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. The main topic of discussion is the uncertainties of in situ and remote sensing instruments used in land-based field campaigns and their ability to vertically profile the atmosphere. Field campaigns that leverage the instrumentation at sites of the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program and GCOS Reference Upper Air Network (GRUAN) are highlighted. While the emphasis is on a limited selection of reference-quality observations that are useful for validation of satellite temperature and moisture sounding products, the common theme of these observations is to provide a well characterized traceability path from the atmospheric measurements back to international standards. This emphasis on calibration and validation has proven to be important in order to advance the state of atmospheric remote sensing science to achieve the accuracies required for monitoring small changes in the Earth’s climate over long periods of time.
 

Citation

Lori A. Borg, Ruud J. Dirksen, Robert O. Knuteson,
Chapter 12 - Land-based cal/val campaigns,
Editor(s): Nicholas R. Nalli,
Field Measurements for Passive Environmental Remote Sensing,
Elsevier,
2023,
Pages 219-233,
ISBN 9780128239537,
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823953-7.00001-0.