Environmental-Expert.com - UK satellite mission to improve accuracy of climate-change measurements gains global support

'We've seen a recent surge in recognition around the world that we need more accurate data about our climate,' explains Dr Nigel Fox, NPL's lead scientist on TRUTHS. 'This can only be good news. With so many influential organisations calling for a TRUTHS-like mission we hope to be moving from scientific theory to spaceflight very soon.'

Assessments of climate change and the consequential scale of its impact depend on accurate data from scores of earth observation satellites. They ought to provide unequivocal evidence to support national and international legislation. But most earth observation data is disputable.

'We just don't know if the instruments are really accurate enough once they've been in space for a couple of years,' Fox says. 'What we do know is they all seem to produce slightly different results, and that gives a lot of unnecessary wriggle room to those who dispute the evidence for human origins of climate change. The uncertainty of the data allows the sceptics to exist.'