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Pauline's Publications and Presentations

SEMINARS AT THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

13th August 1997

29th July 1996

Presentation on Technology Foresight

Presentation on Alvey Program

Left click anywhere in the presentation when it is on the screen to go forwards - if you right click you can change the size, end or go back.

NOTE: These presentations are in Microsoft Powerpoint and need an ActiveX viewer to be loaded which is only possible if you are running one of the latest Browsers such as Internet Explorer 3.0 which can be obtained from the Microsoft Site. The presentations are in a highly compressed form for downloading. If you do not have a suitable Browser or the viewer loaded or it will tell you when you click on the presentations. It may also ask you if you want to open or save the presentation if you have security checks enabled - it is sensible to save the presentation to the Desktop and view it off line when you have loaded the viewer. How to load and use the ActiveX Viewer has more details and also covers the security issues of using ActiveX and Java.

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Peter's Publications and Presentations

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, 1996

Report 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.

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).

METHYTEC Conference - Geneva May 1995

The Characterisation and Validation of Data
From Operational Satellite Instruments

Brownscombe 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.

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.

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:

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.

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