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Panel members were:
The panel discussion was well-attended by more than 120 participants
from Europe, Asia, the Americas, and elsewhere. Numerous questions
and excellent comments were received from the audience, which
included representatives of government and intergovernmental organizations,
private industry, and academia.
My fuller Report of the panel session is available as are the Introductory Vugraphs we presented as a ActiveX Powerpoint Presentation.
(How to load and use an ActiveX Viewer).
The requirements for characterisation and validation of operational
satellite instruments will be covered and the more stringent requirements
of the climate user for continuity, high absolute accuracy calibration
and consistency in quality and error characteristics over long
time periods will be brought out. In particular the needs for
inter-comparison of instruments within the same series and between
instruments of different types both prior to launch and by validation
campaigns after launch will be addressed. The UK Met Office's
ground based characterisation facilities and airborne instrumentation
covering the next generation of operational passive microwave
instruments will be described with some examples of results from
the current test programme. The impacts of increasingly sophisticated
uses of the data, including assimilation schemes, on instrument
design and test programmes will be discussed.
Dr Peter Curtis is currently Head of the Remote Sensing Branch
of the UK Meteorological Office with a staff of 25 working on
satellites with an additional 10 working on radar and other ground
based remote sensing. The work covers research using airborne
instrumentation on the C130, procurement of the AMSU-B instruments
due to start operational flight later this year, calibration and
characterization of satellite instruments, a studies programme
on new techniques and systems and representation on many of the
committees of the Space Agencies. He is the delegate to the EUMETSAT
Scientific and Technical Group (STG) and a Delegate to Council.
He is a delegate to the ESA Programme Board for Earth Observation
(PB-EO) and is a member of a number of ESA, EUMETSAT and UK expert
groups and project boards. He works part time at the British National
Space Centre (BNSC) and is the Met Office representative on the
BNSC Earth Observation Programme Board (EOPB).
He has worked in the Satellite field for 25 years starting with
a PhD in Atmospheric Physics at Oxford University where he worked
on the ESCR, PMR and SAMS instruments for upper atmosphere temperature
and composition measurement on the NASA Nimbus series of spacecraft
and did the preliminary designs for the Stratospheric Sounding
Unit (SSU) still flying as an operational meteorology instrument
on the NOAA series. He has had an end-to-end involvement covering,
specification, design, implementation, calibration and in-orbit
evaluation. He has worked at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
of the Science and Engineering Research Council being Instrument
Scientist on ATSR, Project leader for UK on MLS, Manager of the
EO and astronomy Technology Programmes, Manager of the environmental
test facilities and leader of the Microwave Technology Group.
He moved to the Meteorological Office 6 years ago.
Smaller Satellites
and their Use in Operational Environmental Monitoring Systems
International Academy of Astronautics
(IAA)
Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation,
Berlin, Germany, November
6, 1996Report of Panel Discussion
This panel discussion was planned and hosted by the UK Meteorological
Office and NOAA during a week-long International Academy of Astronautics
(IAA) Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation. The
panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Peter Curtis, Space Policy
Advisor, UKMO and Mr. W. John Hussey, Director, Office of Systems
Development, NOAA/NESDIS.
METHYTEC Conference - Geneva May 1995
The Characterisation and Validation of Data
From Operational Satellite InstrumentsBrownscombe J, Curtis P D and Saunders R W.
Synopsis
The calibration, characterisation and validation of operational
meteorological satellite instruments is becoming increasingly
important now that their value for climate monitoring has been
recognised - the impact of human activities on climate continues
to be a topic of global concern and there is a compelling case
for data monitoring programmes to try to narrow some of the uncertainties
associated with long term climate change. Over the last thirty
years, satellites have provided data routinely for weather forecasting
and the quality, quantity and coverage of satellite measurements
has steadily improved over the years and will remain a vital source
of data for operational meteorology and climate in the future.
Long time series of global data are already available for some
parameters however it is a major task to confirm that these data
are consistent and that any trends - even in the more sensitive
indicators of climate change - have not been masked by instrumental
changes, changes in measurement technique or absolute calibration.
NIWA SEMINAR
New Zealand, 7th February 1996
Satellites for Meteorology
What do we Need and Where are we Going?Synopsis
Meteorologists have become increasingly dependent on observations
from satellites to complement and sometimes replace ground based
observations. The operational meteorological satellites have also
underpinned many other areas of Earth Observation and will have
a key role in Climate Monitoring and the Detection of Climate
change. New Geostationary and Polar Systems will become operational
at the start of the Millennium and this talk will give some insight
into the process which has been gone through in matching the various
aspirations of the diverse users, the satellite operators and
the technical developers, all under increasing funding pressure.
Mention will be given to the stringent requirements placed by
climate monitoring on the specification and characterization of
the next generation of instruments.
Resume for NIWA staff:
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The views are entirely those of the authors and do not represent any other organisations. Copyright © Peter and Pauline Curtis Most recent significant revision: 22th March, 1998 30th December, 2002 |
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