Abstract This paper presents the results of a feasibility study to evaluate a method for the use of satellite measurements as a transfer standard to determine temperature biases between radiosonde types. The method was evaluated on a sample of satellite observations that were paired with nighttime radiosonde observations. Only nighttime cases were used in this study in order to avoid the additional complication of heating of the radiosonde by solar radiation; however, the method should be equally valid in daylight. Radiances were calculated from radiosonde temperature profiles and compared to radiances for the same location as measured from the satellite. With the use of radiosonde–satellite pairs for two different radiosonde types, the satellite radiances were used to remove radiance differences due to atmospheric temperature differences from the radiosonde radiances. This step allowed radiosondes at different locations to be compared. Biases between the U.S. civilian instrument and the Vaisala instrumen...