NCAVEO NCAVEO : achievements of the last three years and plans for the future E J Milton 1, N.P. Fox 2 & S. Mackin 2,3 1 School of Geography, University of Southampton 2 National Physical Laboratory 3 Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.

NCAVEO Network for Calibration and Validation of Earth Observation data Established in September initial partners, now 24, drawn from academia, industry & commerce. Representative Steering Committee. Aim to promote the calibration and validation of EO data (cal/val). Calibration : based on physical units, traceable with known uncertainty through an unbroken chain to primary standards. Validation : comparison between data products produced by EO and those created by conventional methods (QA).

NCAVEO Objectives of the network Develop a resource base to support cal/val activities – case studies, database of instruments, field sites, annotated bibliography etc. Share best practice in cal/val. Engage the wider community. Website : NCAVEO Field Experiment

NCAVEO

NCAVEO map of UK terrestrial cal/val sites

NCAVEO Aims of the experiment To gain experience in the collection and use of field data to validate radiance and reflectance products, including issues of traceability and the propagation of error; To gain experience in methods to validate the LAI of agricultural crops derived from EO; To assemble a quality-controlled multi- scale, multi-sensor data set for algorithm development and testing. 48 scientists from 20 organisations.

NCAVEO Choice of site : Chilbolton, Hampshire Study area 9km x 6km. Includes the UK AERONET site at the Chilbolton Facility for Atmospheric & Radio Research (CFARR). 3GHz Doppler-polarisation radar, 1275MHz clear air radar, UV vertical sounding lidar and more...

NCAVEO Calibration lab established on-site: NPL Transfer Standard Absolute Radiance Source (TSARS). Wavelength calibration standards. Reference panel calibration: on- site using ASD contact probe, post-hoc at FSF, Edinburgh. Traceability chain for radiometric measurements Large area reference standards: 6m x 6m plastic sheets 40m x 40m area of clean concrete.

NCAVEO RS data successfully acquired DatePlatform and Sensor 9 th JuneDigital multispectral air photography 10 th JuneSPOT-5 HRG 13 th JuneDMC Nigeria-1 17 th June CASI : Environment Agency CASI : NERC ARSF LiDAR : Environment Agency Digital air photos Aisa Eagle & Hawk : NERC ARSF CHRIS/PROBA DMC UK 14 th JulyDMC AlSat

NCAVEO Timeline for ‘golden day’, 17 th June :0009:0010:0011:0012:0013:00 Sky irradiance distribution DMC UK CHRIS PROBA EA CASI and LiDAR NERC CASI & AISA Eagle/Hawk Spectral ground data Aerosol optical thickness & water vapour amount

NCAVEO Ground data collection Mean LAIStd Error Oats Wheat Barley

NCAVEO Chilbolton EA CASI & Air Photos 17 th June 2006 © EA, 2006

NCAVEO NERC ARSF CASI data 17 th June 2006 © NERC, 2006

NCAVEO Irradiance variability on 17 th June DMCCHRIS EA NERC

NCAVEO Subset of UK-DMC image from 17 th June 2006 Andover Winchester

NCAVEO CHRIS/PROBA off-nadir 17 th June 2006 FZA = 36 degrees FZA = -36 degrees FZA = 36 degrees. Satellite north of test site. FZA = -36 degrees. Satellite south of test site. © SSTL/ESA, 2006

NCAVEO Data management and archiving Standardised metadata. Non-proprietary formats: HDF, netCDF, PDF. Spectra in ENVI spectral libraries.

NCAVEO Organisational achievements of the field experiment Probably unique in UK context. Brought together 48 scientists from 20 organisations in a single, focused field experiment. Three organisations flew aircraft over the site. Two acquired satellite sensor data specifically for the experiment. 19 field teams worked for between 1 and 10 days collecting spectral & biophysical data. Demonstrated commitment to cal/val across different disciplines and within different organisations.

NCAVEO Scientific achievements of the field experiment On-site cal lab revealed differences between some of the five spectrometers used – calibration errors, response to temperature changes etc. Field comparison revealed different results from the three Microtops sunphotometers used. Four groups currently working on journal papers from the expt: 1.Overview paper 2.Radiometry & calibration 3.Validation of crop LAI 4.RS for river channel habitat survey

NCAVEO Overall achievements of NCAVEO Brought together individuals from academia, industry & government interested in cal/val. Allowed them to determine how ‘knowledge transfer’ can best be achieved: Cal/val information in a form that can be used immediately – exemplars etc. Shared practical activity – experiential learning. Large dataset with high quality metadata. Implementation & dissemination of results from the CEOS WGCV and from other international activities (e.g. VALERI project).

NCAVEO What next? Funding for NCAVEO finishes at the end of September 2007 (NERC K-T grant). Website will be maintained until the end of September Datasets from the experiment will be available to the wider community from January UK cal/val test site(s)? Future field experiments?

Thank you to the NCAVEO Partners: