The NERC Field Spectroscopy Facility Tim Malthus and Chris MacLellan

Recent history l Pool of field portable spectroradiometers l Supporting instruments for atmospheric properties l Transferred from Southampton to Edinburgh in 2004 l Emphasis on maintaining standards set l A programme of refurbishment and upgrading of existing equipment l ‘Procedurising’ major functions including QA and calibration l Modifications to the QA/Cal process to improve user confidence l Surveying users

What does cal/val mean to us? l Calibration and traceability l Stability monitoring l Standards (radiance, irradiance, reflectance) l Quality assurance (dark signal, linearity, radiometric and wavelength accuracies) l User reassurance l Role of instruments in ‘MM2’ l The use of FSF equipment in validation of data products from other sources (e.g. NERC ARSF data products)

Benefits of cal/val to FSF l Adds credence to the measurement data l Increases confidence in the accuracy of the data l Improves comparison to historical data sets l Provides a credible comparison to international data l Sets a high standard / benchmark for the field spectroscopy community throughout the UK l Enables the facility to participate in UK laboratory inter-comparison studies l Enhances the reputation of the facility l Encourages others to use the facility

Issues l Cal/Val seen as vitally important to our function l Procedures which ensure rigour in our own practice l Increasing numbers of instruments in the UK, with potentially variable degrees of maintenance and calibration l Awareness-raising and a service role beyond our own users

User survey l Partly to find out:  Use and satisfaction with equipment and quality of it that FSF provides  Degree to which users are increasingly relying on their own instrumentation  The extent to which they undertake their own QA and Cal procedures

User survey results l High level of satisfaction with FSF equipment l ~60% respondents have their own instruments  Field spectroradiometers to Ocean Optics l ~60% of these were calibrated less than once every two years l Considerable interest in  Calibration  QA and calibration

The future… l More extensive survey of UK-based field instrumentation, in conjunction with NCAVEO l Participation in Cal/Val programmes  Accuracy improvment l Establishing measures of equipment performance and limitations l FTIR instrument l Awareness