Spatiotemporal Path-Matching for Comparisons Between Ground- Based and Satellite Lidar Measurements

The spatiotemporal sampling differences between ground-based and satellite lidar data can contribute to significant errors for direct measurement comparisons. Improvement in sample correspondence is examined by the use of radiosonde wind velocity to vary the time average in ground-based lidar data to spatially match coincident satellite lidar measurements. Results are shown for the 26 February 2004 GLAS/ICESat overflight of a ground-based lidar stationed at NASA GSFC. Statistical analysis indicates that improvement in signal correlation is expected under certain conditions, even when a ground-based observation is mismatched in directional orientation to the satellite track.