Some of our key research activities in Environment and Climate Change research include providing traceable measurements for Earth Observation Instrumentation, and Support for Vicarious Calibration. This involves many collaborations, which are providing international support for our satellite mission proposal TRUTHS.

The group is also involved in developing new QA/QC procedures, in collaboration with ESA for GMES. It is also playing a lead role in efforts to establish an internationally accepted data quality strategy within the wider community through CEOS and GEO.

In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for improved accuracy and reliability of Earth Observation (EO) data, stimulated not only by our desire to understand better the workings of our planet and the cause and impact of climate change, but also because improvements in models allow us to discriminate better between data. A further driver is the increasing reliance on the combination of data from different sensors and sources (satellites, aircraft and in-situ) to establish more sophisticated data products. These will be important for 'operational services' of the future, as envisaged in initiatives such as GMES (Global Monitoring of Environment and Security) of the EU and ESA and to meet the societal themes within the overarching international framework of the Group on Earth Observation (GEO). The combination of data from different sources can only be carried out if each data set has a clear, reliable statement of uncertainties or indicator of confidence level, and that all the data processing steps from collection to distribution are fully Quality Assured.

It is also of course essential that all measurements and associated instrumentation used for any quantitative purpose in remote sensing be fully traceable to SI as part of the Quality Assurance process, as recommended by the Committee of Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) in 2001. The Optical Technologies group has, and is, engaged in all aspects of the Traceability Chain that provides the means to quality assure EO data products.