Category: News

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) attended Cheltenham Science Festival and demonstrated how satellites can be used to observe the Earth’s surface. As one of the UK’s most prestigious and popular science festivals, the event was an ideal setting to explain the work of NPL, and to give the public the opportunity to see the Earth from a new perspective. An annual celebration of science Each summer, Cheltenham Science Festival holds six days of talks, practical demonstrations, debates and experiments. Speakers this year included Richard Dawkins, Alice Roberts and Jim al Khalili; and visiting institutions included the BBC and GCHQ, alongside NPL. Volunteers from NPL manned a stand at the Festival to demonstrate satellite Earth observation and spectroscopy to members of the public. A …

NPL gives the public a new perspective on Earth and climate change Read more »

The CEOS-WGCV-IVOS meeting in Toulouse, France, was attended by more than 40 world experts from space agencies and associated industry across the globe, with additional attendance remotely via the internet. NPL was well-represented, with Nigel Fox chairing the Infrared and Visible Optical Sensors (IVOS) subgroup, and Javier Gorroño presenting work on using pseudo-invariant calibration sites for TRUTHS and work on the Sentinel-2 uncertainties. The RadCalNet working group also met during the IVOS week, where Tracy Scanlon presented her uncertainty analysis for the USA’s RadCalNet site.

Scientists from NPL’s Earth Observation, Climate and Optical (ECO) group have recently installed the Cryogenic Solar Absolute Radiometer (CSAR) at the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos / World Radiation Center (PMOD/WRC) in Switzerland. CSAR was developed in close collaboration with PMOD/WRC and METAS (NMI Switzerland). As a cryogenic radiometer, CSAR provides a direct link to the International System of Units (SI), and offers a much-reduced measurement uncertainty compared to the current standard. During the WMO International Pyrheliometer Comparison (IPC XII) CSAR was measuring Solar Irradiance alongside the existing World Standard Group (WSG) which currently provides the worldwide radiometric reference scale for Solar Irradiance measurements.

Emma delivered a training course on Metrology for Earth Observation to the Academy of Opto-Electronics, AOE, in Beijing, and Nigel Fox met with CMA (the Chinese Met Office). They also visited the Chinese RadCalNet site (radiometric calibration network of instrumented test sites), belonging to AOE (Academy of Opto-Electronics) in Baotou, Inner Mongolia.

Tracy Scanlon visited the Railroad Valley RadCalNet site, Nevada. She accompanied a team from the University of Arizona who utilise the radiometric test site for the vicarious calibration of instruments on-board satellites. The methods used in both measuring the site and propagating the surface measurements to Top-of-Atmosphere will aid in developing a robust and complete uncertainty budget for the site.

Eija Honkavaara, Olli Nevalainen, Teemu Hakala, Tomi Rosnell, Roope Näsi, Sanna Kaasalainen from FGI carried used an unmanned airborne vehicle (UAV)-based hyperspectral imaging system, terrestrial hyperspectral passive imaging system and an active hyperspectral LiDAR (HSL) during the campaign.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) hosted a conference in May, bringing together representatives from international research organisations to discuss the role of metrology in supporting climate research.

MetEOC2 has officially started with a meeting of all project partners at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK.