Information Content in Remote Sensing: A perspective on Twomey's Influence on Present and Future Observations (Invited Presentation)

Remote sensing of Earth's atmosphere and surface relies on increasingly large numbers of spectral bands available from spectral imagers and profilers. In the shortwave spectral domain, future missions currently under development propose higher resolution sensors to aid in the attribution of climate change signal through their increased information content. A number of recent studies that have quantified the expected gain in information trace their heritage to Twomey's seminal work on inverse theory. This paper will highlight some of Twomey's contributions to remote sensing and the mathematics of inversions and the inspiration they provided to current studies on signal change detection and attribution. A historical perspective is provided, including examples from remote sensing of cloud thermodynamic phase to new climate change mission concepts.