Railroad Valley Playa CEOS Calibration Site Instrument Data

CEOS Cal Val Test Site - Railroad Valley Playa, USA is one of eight instrumented CEOS Reference Test Sites for vicarious calibration. The site provides surface and atmospheric measurements to support sensor intercomparison and traceable validation of Earth Observing satellites. Data is managed by the USGS Long Term Archive (USGS_LTA) under the CEOS framework established in 2004.

Use Cases

• Predicting Top of Atmosphere (TOA) radiance using site-specific surface and atmospheric measurements for sensor intercomparison.
• Validating radiometric gain for in-flight satellite instruments using field campaign data from the instrumented site.
• Harmonizing data from different sensors by using the site's documented reference methodology and common format data.
• Evaluating biases of future satellite instruments using the site's long-term, traceable calibration database.

Strengths

• One of eight globally recognized CEOS Reference Test Sites for calibration.
• Designed to provide continuous, traceable calibration data for satellite validation.
• Part of the LANDNET initiative, facilitating international harmonized inter-comparison efforts.

Limitations

• Specific row count, column details, and temporal coverage are unknown.
• Only three of the eight sites were capable of fully automated operation at the time of description.
• Data availability and update frequency for Railroad Valley are not specified.

Provenance

Source

USGS Long Term Archive (USGS_LTA) for the CEOS instrumented site.

Collection Method

Field campaigns and autonomous instrumentation at the Railroad Valley Playa site to obtain radiometric and atmospheric measurements.

Geography

Railroad Valley Playa, Nevada, USA.