By Riho Vendt
Fiducial Reference Measurements (FRM) are a suite of independent ground measurements that provide the maximum return on investment for a satellite mission by delivering to users the required confidence in data products, in the form of independent validation results and satellite measurement uncertainty estimation, over the entire end-to-end duration of a satellite mission. The FRM must have documented traceability to the SI units (in terms of an unbroken chain of calibrations and comparisons), be independent from the satellite retrieval process, have evaluated uncertainty budgets for all FRM instruments and measurement procedures applied, have defined and adhered-to protocols and community-wide management practices, and be openly available for independent scrutiny.
In 2016 – 2019 the FRM4SOC (Fiducial Reference Measurements for Satellite Ocean Colour) project was funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) to improve ocean colour validation through a series of proof-of-concept tasks. These included developing measurement protocols and organising laboratory and field inter-comparisons by following the principles and guidelines endorsed by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS).
The conclusions and outcomes from the FRM4SOC (Phase-1) project are published in the special issue of the MDPI journal Remote Sensing
Fiducial Reference Measurements for Satellite Ocean Colour
Andrew Clive Banks, Christophe Lerebourg, Kevin Ruddick, Gavin Tilstone and Riho Vendt (Eds.)
Open Access
Book (Hard Cover): ISBN 978-3-03943-064-2 (Hbk)
PDF: ISBN 978-3-03943-065-9 (PDF)
Individual papers (web page of the special issue)
© 2020 by the authors; CC BY licence
