The fourth radiation transfer model intercomparison (RAMI-IV): Proficiency testing of canopy reflectance models with ISO-13528

The Radiation Transfer Model Intercomparison (RAMI) activity aims at assessing the reliability of physics-based radiative transfer (RT) models under controlled experimental conditions. RAMI focuses on computer simulation models that mimic the interactions of radiation with plant canopies and that are increasingly used in the development of satellite retrieval algorithms for terrestrial Essential Climate Variables (ECVs). Rather than applying ad hoc performance metrics, RAMI-IV makes use of existing ISO standards to enhance the rigour of its protocols evaluating the quality of RT models. ISO-13528 was developed “to determine the performance of individual laboratories for specific tests or measurements”. More specifically, it aims to guarantee that measurement results fall within specified tolerance criteria from a known reference. Of particular interest to RAMI is that ISO-13528 provides guidelines for comparisons where the true value of the target quantity is unknown and hence must be replaced by a reliable “conventional reference value” to enable absolute performance tests. This contribution will show, for the first time, how international standards developed by the chemical and physical measurement communities can be applied to the proficiency testing of computer simulation models (in the field of canopy radiation transfer). Detailed performance statistics will be provided and the role of the accuracy of the reference solutions as well as the choice of the criteria to determine model proficiency will be discussed.

WIDLOWSKI Jean-Luc;  PINTY Bernard;  LOPATKA Maciej;  ATZBERGER Clement;  BUZICA Daniela;  CHELLE Michael;  DISNEY Mathias;  GASTELLU-ETCHEGORRY Jean-Philippe;  GERBOLES Michel;  GOBRON Nadine;  GRAU Eloi;  HUANG Huaguo;  KALLEL Abdelaziz;  KOBAYASHI Hideki;  LEWIS P.;  QIN W.;  SCHLERF Martin;  JAN Stuckens;  XIE Donghui; 

2013-08-30

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION

JRC77637

0148-0227,   

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jgrd.50497/abstract,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC77637,   

10.1002/jgrd.50497,