Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) is a private research company founded in 1974 by
Frank Wentz
Frank Wentz is the CEO and director of Remote Sensing Systems, a company he founded in 1974, which specializes in satellite microwave remote sensing research. Together with Carl Mears, he is best known for developing a satellite temperature record ...
. It processes microwave data from a variety of
NASA satellites. Most of their research is supported by the
Earth Science Enterprise program. The company is based in
Santa Rosa, California.
Satellite Temperature Record
RSS is a widely cited source of data on the
satellite temperature record
Satellite temperature measurements are inferences of the temperature of the atmosphere at various altitudes as well as sea and land surface temperatures obtained from radiometric measurements by satellites. These measurements can be used to loc ...
. Their data is one source of evidence for
global warming. Research by
Carl Mears Carl Mears is a Senior Scientist, at Remote Sensing Systems, since 1998. He has worked on validation of SSM/I derived winds, and rain-flagging algorithm for the QuikScat scatterometer. He is best known for his work with Frank Wentz in developing a ...
, Matthias Schabel, and Wentz, all of RSS, highlighted errors in the early satellite temperature records compiled by
John Christy
John Raymond Christy is a climate scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) whose chief interests are satellite remote sensing of global climate and global climate change. He is best known, jointly with Roy Spencer, for the firs ...
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
Aqua (EOS PM-1) is a NASA scientific research satellite in orbit around the Earth, studying the precipitation, evaporation, and cycling of water. It is the second major component of the Earth Observing System (EOS) preceded by Terra (launched 199 ...
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