Recent Advances and Challenges of Monitoring Climate Change from Space - Satellite-based Applications on Climate Change - page 350

efforts and major objectives of satellite monitoring and applications. As the use of
satellites advanced, the objectives for their use changed from tracking cloud patterns
to specialized products like snow cover, precipitation, and vegetation indices. As
satellite monitoring progressed, it became evident that new challenges associated with
using satellite data for long-term monitoring of climate change require better
approaches for calibration, derived products, trend uncertainty, and measurement
quality. As the global satellite constellation continues to expand and our knowledge
base matures, future satellite measurement issues will center on calibration techniques
as the foundation for all the derived products and services. To monitor climate change
effectively requires a stable and consistent baseline from which to judge the change
with significantly reduced uncertainties.
In Chap. 2 , Drs. Cao et al. ( 2013 ) present the fundamental issues in satellite
instrument calibration and provide an overview of the current status, challenges,
and latest developments in inter-satellite calibration.
MODIS is a key instrument of the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) with
36 spectral bands covering wavelengths from 0.41 to 14.4 m and three nadir

spatial resolutions: 250 m, 500 m, and 1 km. Terra and Aqua MODIS have
produced more than 10 years of global data sets that have significantly helped
scientists to better understand the Earth system. In Chap. 3 , Drs. Salomonson and
Xiong ( 2013 ) discuss the MODIS instrument characterization and performance.
Potential applications of MODIS data products for climate studies are illustrated,
and the follow-on instrument, VIIRS, is briefly introduced.
In Chap. 4 , Drs. Powell and Xu ( 2013 ) compare the temperature responses to
climate forcings in winter (December-February) between the pre- (1958-1978) and
post- (1979-2002) periods of satellite data assimilation using multiple linear regres-
sion analysis for the lower stratospheric and the middle tropospheric temperature
changes associated with key climate forcings: solar variability, ENSO, QBO, and
stratospheric aerosols for the two periods based on three temperature data sets. The
analysis reaffirms the core forcing parameters for atmospheric temperature trends,
such as solar radiation, ENSO, QBO, and stratospheric aerosols, and demonstrates
similar features and trends of approximately the same magnitude. The discrepancies
between the pre- and post-satellite era analyses are also discussed.
Long-term high-quality consistent fundamental climate data records (FCDRs)
are critical in understanding the complicated changes of the Earth system. Although
there have been many satellite instruments available for Earth observation, the
integration of remote sensing measurements from different sensors is necessary for
constructing consistent long-term climate data records. In Chap. 5 , Drs. Hao and Qu
( 2013 ) introduce the band mapping approach for FCDR generation and demonstrate
results for the thermal infrared bands of AVHRR and MODIS. Quantitative
relationships between thermal emissive measurements of different sensors are
investigated towards the construction of thermal emissive FCDRs.
In Chap. 6 , Drs. Ferraro and Smith ( 2013 ) discuss various satellite precipitation
retrieval methods and applications of global precipitation data sets. Various precip-
itation retrieval algorithms are reviewed, and the strengths and weaknesses of these
algorithms are discussed. In addition, the emerging techniques and products using
integrated multiple satellite measurements for the best possible historical precipita-
tion estimation are presented.

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