The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center Remote Sensing Technologies (RST) Project supports advanced instrumentation for Sensor Calibration and Product Validation. Joint agency agreements have been established with the USGS, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to become part of seven different instrumentation networks. Components of these networks are operated at EROS.

These components collect data to support Earth science data calibration and validation. The networks collect key Earth surface properties necessary to calibrate remote sensing data and ensure product validity. These properties include high-precision global positioning system (GPS) reference data, complete meteorological microclimate data, soil temperature and moisture data, surface solar radiation data, and carbon flux measurements. Without calibrated instruments, data products could not be validated for science use; therefore, the instrument data is crucial.

The USGS instrumentation network site at EROS supports:

NOAA National Ocean Service National Geodetic Survey

• Continuously Operating Reference Stations
• EROS Station

NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory

• GPS Surface Observation System Network
• EROS Station
• Most Recent Data

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

• Soil Climate Analysis Network
• EROS Station
• Most Recent Data

NOAA

• Surface Radiation Research Branch's Surface Radiation Budget Network
• EROS Station
• Most Recent Data

NOAA National Climatic Data Center

• Climate Reference Network
• EROS Station
• Most Recent Data

USGS

• carbon flux tower supporting NOAA and USDA networks; such as AmeriFlux and FLUXNET
• Brookings Station

USGS Cimel instruments support the NASA AERONET network

• EROS Station

The RST project also provides support for instruments and vicarious calibration tools required to calibrate and/or validate commercial remote sensing data in the field.