Validation
An Overview of MISR Validation Objectives
In order to gain confidence in the science we do, we desire to make inspections of the results. If the validation team confirms the dust, cloud, and land surface measurements made by MISR, the science community has assurance it is safe to use this information for their own needs.
The validation staff perform their services by maintaining a collection of instruments which measure dust, and surface-reflected light. We call these instruments the "field instruments", as they are taken to Earth locations outside of our office locations. Some examples of field sites are desert locations, cities, ocean areas, and vegetated land surfaces (both natural and agricultural). The measurement taken at these sites are compared directly against the same measurements made by MISR, from space.
These members of the MISR team are preparing to make field measurements at Lunar Lake, Nevada, early on the morning of June 5, 1996. Here they are working on a portable instrument that can measure light reflected by the surface in many color bands and at multiple view angles. In the course of the day, they carried this instrument around the test site in a backpack, taking hundreds of images of the surface. During this experiment, they also used instruments that measure sunlight and skylight. Independent field measurements such as these will be used to validate and confirm the data acquired by the spaceborne MISR instrument and the airborne AirMISR instrument.
This picture shows members of the MISR validation team. They are working at a desert site, and have in front of them an instrument which measures the light coming from Earth's surface. Desert sites are one of several different types of sites used to calibrate the measurements made by MISR.