The Use of Statistics in the Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Profiles (Invited Presentation)

I first met Prof. Johnson, Don, the first day that I began graduate work at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1963. Little did I know how important that encounter would be for my professional career and in the evolution of satellite remote sensing. Professor Johnson, who was just finishing his PhD dissertation at the time, gave me some sound advice as to how to proceed with my MS thesis research concerning satellite sensing of atmospheric energetics, a topic that he was most familiar with. In any event, he proceeded to instruct me on how to use sound statistical practice for validating my thesis approach and results. He taught me basic principles of analysis of variance. This education led to the extensive use of statistical principles in my MS and PhD research as well as in the subsequent development of satellite and surface based remote sensing techniques. In this talk, I provide a discussion of, and results from, the use of statistical methods in satellite and surface based remote sensing of atmospheric profiles, from the very beginning up to and including current day practice.