Monitoring the climate system from space: progress, pitfalls and possibilities
The aim of this briefing paper is to provide an overview of the way measurements from space can provide a basis for the understanding and analysis of climate change, highlighting some of the insights that they have provided but also describing the difficulties that are inherent in constructing climate quality space based records. Also introduce several proposed initiatives that may help to resolve some of these difficulties in the future and provide an indication of how these data may be used to address several important scientific and policy areas.