Articles | Volume 8, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4699-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4699-2015
Research article
 | 
06 Nov 2015
Research article |  | 06 Nov 2015

Known and unknown unknowns: uncertainty estimation in satellite remote sensing

A. C. Povey and R. G. Grainger

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Short summary
Clear communication of the uncertainty on data is necessary for users to make appropriate use of it. This paper discusses the representation of uncertainty in satellite observations of the environment, arguing that the dominant sources of error are assumptions made during data analysis. The resulting uncertainty may be more usefully represented using ensemble techniques (a set of analyses using different assumptions to illustrate their impact) than with traditional statistical metrics.