Month 36 Meeting at NPL Teddington : MetEOC has come a long way in twelve years, producing impacts significant and ongoing 

Marking the culmination of twelve years continuous research under the Metrology for Earth Observation and Climate brand, at the MetEOC-4 Month 36 meeting, on 4 and 5 July 2023 Nigel Fox, the project series coordinator, said, “This is, in a sense, an end of an era and I personally want to thank everybody who’s been with us for the journey and those who have joined part way along, or been In and out for bits of it.” 

“And while there may be a MetEOC-5, in some form, that can only be after a gap, so this marks the end of the continuous series of MetEOC projects. I want to thank everybody who’s been with us for the journey.”  

“Thank you for your efforts and contributions over the years, which, I think, had an impact, not only within the metrology community, but also in wider the Earth observation and climate community.” 

“It’s shown there is critical value and importance of the work we all have done and are doing”.  

“And the message is getting through. The major stakeholders for Earth observation in Europe — such as The European Space Agency, and EUMETSAT — in many cases have specific requirements to involve NMIs in projects and activities. Certainly, they’re saying we want to have traceability and want to have uncertainties. That’s really a major step forward that wasn’t there 12 years ago.” 

“Sometimes the words traceability and uncertainty were used, but perhaps not in a manner understood by the metrology community. But they now are, and so I think we have come a long way, with an impact that, I think, is significant and ongoing.” 

Developments in all work packages towards completion were presented by MetEOC-4 participants and concluded with discussions on opportunities to evolve or continue avenues of research in the direction of a future iteration of MetEOC, or elsewhere.