The International Satellite Land-Surface Climatology Project

To assess the land-surface characteristics needed for climate studies on a global scale there exists only one change: the development of interpretation methods for satellite data to an extent that quantitative information about basic parameters becomes operationally feasible. The International Satellite Land-Surface Climatology Project coordinates the efforts necessary to reach this aim. Steps towards this end are the evaluation of retrospective satellite data by means of preliminary evaluation methods, the development of improved algorithms for the inference of land-surface properties, and the validation of the products derived from the satellite measurements by means of field experiments. An overview is given of the present status of the project.