Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) is a private research company founded in 1974 by
Frank Wentz. It processes microwave data from a variety of
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
satellites. Most of their research is supported by the
Earth Science Enterprise
NASA Earth Science, formerly called NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) and Mission To Planet Earth (MTPE), is a NASA research program "to develop a scientific understanding of the Earth system and its response to natural and human-induced chan ...
program. The company is based in
Santa Rosa, California
Santa Rosa ( Spanish for " Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area in California. Its estimated 2019 population was 178,127. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and ...
.
Satellite Temperature Record
RSS is a widely cited source of data on the
satellite temperature record. Their data is one source of evidence for
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
. Research by
Carl Mears, Matthias Schabel, and Wentz, all of RSS, highlighted errors in the early satellite temperature records compiled by
John Christy and
Roy Spencer at
UAH,
which had previously showed no significant temperature trend, bringing the derived satellite data into closer agreement with surface temperature trends, radiosonde data and computer models. The 2011 correction to
UAH data is closer to the RSS data but differences remain, for example the Lower Troposphere global average trend since 1979, RSS currently have +0.133K/decade while UAH have 0.140K/decade, while the mid troposphere difference is even more marked at 0.079K/decade and 0.052K/decade respectively. However, in a recent online YouTube video, Dr. Carl Mears, a senior scientist with the team behind the satellite data, explained how he believes his data set needed correction.
I would have to say that the surface data seems that it's more accurate, because a number of groups analyze the surface data, including some who set out to prove the other ones wrong, and they all get more or less the same answer.
In June 2017, version 4 of the TLT was released and this substantially revised upwards the trend from 1979 by 36% from .135K per decade to .184K per decade.
Atmospheric measurements taken by a different satellite measurement technique, the
Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on the
Aqua satellite launched in 2002, show close agreement with surface data.
[Harvey, Chelsea (April 18, 2019)]
"It's A Match: Satellite and Ground Measurements Agree on Warming"
''Scientific American''. Retrieived 8 Jan 2020.
References
External links
Remote Sensing Systems website
Companies based in Sonoma County, California
Companies based in Santa Rosa, California
Research support companies
{{Climate-stub