Measurement science for climate remote sensing

The NIST role in supporting our Nation's climate research is described. The assembly of climate data records over decadal time scales requires assimilating readings from a large number of optical sensors deployed in space and on the Earth by various nations. NIST, in partnership with NASA and NOAA, develops and disseminates the calibration tools and standards to ensure that the measurements from these sensors are accurate, comparable, and tied to international standards based on the SI system of units. This effort helps to provide confidence that the small decadal changes in environmental variables attributed to climate change are not an artifact of the measurement system. Additionally, it ensures that the measurements are physics based and thus comparable to climate models.