Best Practice Protocol for the Validation of Aerosol, Cloud, and Precipitation Profiles (ACPPV)

The ACPPV has been published on the CEOS portal as:  link

under CEOS Publication and Key Documents link

BIOMASS open calibration and validation call

Please be aware of the BIOMASS open calibration and validation call: link

The launch of the BIOMASS mission is now planned for April 29th 2025.

Through this call you can become part of the BIOMASS Cal/Val team. This call does not come with financial support, but it will provide you privileged access to BIOMASS data and to the Cal/Val team. 

Good Practice Guidelines for UAV-based Surface Reflectance Validation

The Good Practice Guidelines for UAV-based Surface Reflectance Validation have been endorsed by CEOS and published at the following link

CEOS Cal/Val Portal - Newsletter October 2024

Please download the CEOS Cal/Val Portal Newsletter - October 2024. This Newsletter describes the updated content and functionality of the CEOS Cal/Val Portal.

The Third Cabauw INtercomparison of DOAS-like Instruments (CINDI-3)

We are pleased to announce the Third Cabauw INtercomparison of DOAS-like Instruments (CINDI-3), that will take place in Cabauw (The Netherlands) during four weeks from May 21 until June 22, 2024.

CINDI-3 is a community-wide intercalibration campaign of ground-based UV-Visible DOAS instruments measuring the atmospheric column and profile of NO2 and O3, complemented by mobile-DOAS observations and an exhaustive range of measurements of aerosols, NO2, O3 and other UV-Visible trace gases of interest like HCHO, CHOCHO, HONO, BrO and H2O. The campaign also includes an airborne component for the characterization of the 3D variability of the NO2 field and of urban emission sources in the surroundings. Like for the previous CINDI campaigns the experiment will be carried out on the Cabauw Experimental Site for Atmospheric Research (CESAR) located 20 km south-west of Utrecht. This sub-urban site is influenced by emissions from surrounding Dutch cities, which ensures a large variability in tropospheric NO2 with reasonably small spatial gradients.

CINDI-3 is organised under the joint umbrella of the ACTRIS Research Infrastructure, ESA and the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Changes (NDACC). Conducted as a semi-blind intercomparison campaign with an external referee, CINDI-3 aims at the intercalibration of atmospheric trace gas UV-Visible remote-sensing systems in view of consolidating the international participation to ACTRIS and NDACC, and of establishing Fiducial Reference Measurements (FRM) suitable for the validation of current and future satellite missions of the CEOS Air Quality and Ozone constellations. If you wish to participate in the measurement campaign please express your interest to Michel.VanRoozendael at aeronomie.be with cc to Arnoud.Apituley at knmi.nl and Karin Kreher at bkscientific.eu

Preliminary information on the campaign can be found using this link.

CEOS Cal/Val Portal - Newsletter November 2023

Please download the CEOS Cal/Val Portal Newsletter - November 2023. This Newsletter describes the updated content and functionality of the CEOS Cal/Val Portal.

The Surface Reflectance Inter-comparison eXercise for Vegetation (SRIX4VEG) - 2st Workshop

We are pleased to announce the second workshop for the Surface Reflectance Intercomparison eXercise for Vegetation (SRIX4Veg), which will take place at ESA ESRIN on Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th November 2023 (with a hybrid option available for those that cannot travel). SRIX4Veg represents a joint effort between ESA, USGS, CSIRO, DLR, ASI and Geoscience Australia to test user-based differences in UAV-based surface reflectance fiducial reference measurements used for validation of surface reflectance satellite products, and to ensure consensus on UAV-based surface reflectance validation good practices protocol. This activity is endorsed by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and conducted in the framework of the ESA-funded FRM4Veg initiative.

The aim of the second workshop is twofold:

• present to the community the results from the SRIX4Veg activity in Spain during summer 2022
• gather feedback from the community and shape the good practice protocol for surface reflectance validation from UAV-mounted hyperspectral imagers

The first day will provide a recap of the activity, results from the experiments and lessons learnt. The second day will be dedicated to shaping the good practice protocol through discussions and feedback. Detail agenda will be released closer to the time.

Please register your interest for the workshop using this Link.

Microwave Sensors Subgroup - Updates

Please visit the new pages of the Microwave Sensor Subgroup including updated information and new contents: MSSG

SALVAL tool webpage

Please visit the SALVAL tool webpage at the following link: SALVAL home

The overall aim of SALVAL is to bring together validation good practices protocols, ground data and satellite products to provide users with traceable validation results allowing reaching CEOS WGCV LPV validation Stage 4.

Contact (info@salval.eolab.es) in case of technical issues or if you want to make contribution to this scientific community.

QA4SM Evolution in FRM4SM presented at sixth Soil Moisture Validation Workshop

The Quality Assurance for Soil Moisture (QA4SM) service aims to provide a methodological reference and an application tool for Soil Moisture (SM) validation studies at the disposal of the users and producers community. QA4SM was originally created with support of the Austrian Space Application Program. It is further evolved in the ESA Fiducial Reference Measurements for Soil Moisture (FRM4SM) project, with the goal to make use of FRM-compliant reference data and better characterize errors in satellite SM measurements. This first evolution of the QA4SM service is now presented at the sixth Soil Moisture Validation Workshop that is held in Perugia, Italy, from 7 to 9 June 2022.

Please visit the webpage at the following link for further details: QA4SM Evolution in FRM4SM

CEOS WGCV LPV DIRECT V2.1 database

The CEOS WGCV LPV DIRECT V2.1 database constitutes a major effort of the international community to provide ground reference for the validation of LAI and FAPAR ECVs.

The database is now available for download from the CEOS Cal/Val Portal, see details at: LPV DIRECT V2.1

TSIS-1 HSRS solar irradiance reference spectrum

CEOS WGCV recommends the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor-1 (TSIS-1) Hybrid Solar Reference Spectrum (HSRS) as the new solar irradiance reference spectrum. This statement has been agreed during the latest WGCV#50 Plenary Meeting.

Details for TSIS-1 HSRS are available at: https://lasp.colorado.edu/lisird/data/tsis1_hsrs

The Surface Reflectance Inter-comparison eXercise for Vegetation (SRIX4VEG) - 1st Workshop

We would like to invite you to take part in an upcoming workshop for the WGCV Surface Reflectance Inter-comparison eXercise for Vegetation (SRIX4Veg) activity. The 1st SRIX4VEG workshop will be held online on Monday 28th March 2022, starting at 09:00 AM (CET). Please visit https://frm4veg.org/srix4veg/workshop-1/ for details and registration.

SRIX4Veg represents a joint effort between ESA, USGS, CSIRO and Geoscience Australia to test user-based differences in UAV-based surface reflectance fiducial reference measurements used for validation of surface reflectance satellite products, and to ensure consensus on UAV-based surface reflectance validation good practices protocol. This activity is conducted in the framework of the ESA-funded FRM4Veg (www.frm4veg.org) initiative.

The main objectives of SRIX4Veg are:

1. Testing user-based differences in UAV-based surface reflectance measurements, including instrument and operator biases as well as measurement collection procedures.
2. Helping design field measurement protocols and validation methodology that are clear and can be easily applied by all users.
3. Ensuring international buy-in and consensus on the UAV-based surface reflectance validation protocol.

Many thanks,

the SRIX4Veg organisation committee

Atmospheric Correction Inter-comparison eXercise (ACIX-III) and Cloud Masking Inter-comparison eXercise (CMIX-II)

We would like to invite you to participate to the next Atmospheric Correction Inter-comparison eXercise (ACIX-III) and/or Cloud Masking Inter-comparison eXercise (CMIX-II).

The exercises are collaborative activities of ESA and NASA that initiated in 2016 in the frame of CEOS WGCV. ACIX has been already implemented twice on multispectral Copernicus Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 imagery. More information on the latest analysis and the results can be found in the dedicated web pages for the -Land and -Aqua focused part of the exercise. In parallel with ACIXs, CMIX ran over specific areas for which there were reference data available. Similarly to ACIXs, the focus of the first CMIX was on Sentinel-2 (EC/ESA) and Landsat 8 (NASA/USGS) imagery. More information on the first CMIX implementation can be found on https://calvalportal.ceos.org/cmix.

The 1st WS of ACIX-III and CMIX-II will be held in ESA/ESRIN (Frascati, Italy) on 20-21 June 2022.

Participation To ACIXs And CMIX Is Open To All The Scientists Who:

1. are the original developers of the atmospheric correction and/or cloud-masking processor to be inter-compared,
2. are authorized by the original developer to run the AC/CM processor on his/her behalf,
3. agree on submitting the AC/CM processing results within the required constraints (deadline, format, etc.).

For more information on the exercises and the registration for participation, you can find here.

Many thanks,

the ACIX/CMIX organisation committee

CEOS SAR Cal/Val Workshop 2021

The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV), SAR Subgroup, Synthetic Aperture Radar Workshop 2021 (CEOS SAR 2021) will be held virtually in November 2-4, 2021.

Please visit the dedicated page for further details. 

SI-Traceable Space-based Climate Observing System Workshop (SITSCOS) 9-11 Sep 2019, NPL, London UK

The SI-Traceable Space-based Climate Observing System Workshop was hosted by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in London, UK, and sponsored by the UK Space Agency. The workshop was organized under the auspices of the Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System (GSICS) and the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites - Working Group on Calibration and Validation (CEOS-WGCV).

Please visit the dedicated webpage to download the Workshop Report and other relevant materials.

CEOS SAR Subgroup - website

The CEOS SAR Subgroup website has been migrated from http://sarcv.ceos.org to the CEOS Cal/Val Portal. Please enjoy navigation at: http://calvalportal.ceos.org/sar_subgroup

To access the dedicated SAR Subgroup pages (Discussions and Doc Repository) you have to be registered and signed-in at the CEOS Cal/Val Portal. If you wish to be part of the SAR Subgroup please contact the group's Chairman 

Supersites and Biomass Validation Workshop

The Workshop, hosted by CSIRO, was held in Canberra, Australia in the week of 2nd March 2020.

All the presentations, as well as, the meeting Agenda and Minutes are available here

Terms and Definitions Wiki: Your feedback is welcome

The Terms and Definitions Wiki is now accessible, with the following differences:

1.    Guests can view all the definitions;

2.    Site members (i.e. registered users) can view, vote and provide comments;

3.    Members of Terms and Definitions group can, in addition, edit the definitions.

Please note that it is work in progress and your feedback is welcome!