In any region-spanning collaborative effort, using (as-much-as-possible) unbiased methods is of course desirable.
Check out the recent paper by Terando et al. It’s open access, available here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.3499/epdf
They experimentally compared 11 different sensor brand and shield combinations to weather station data, and found that quite a few methods had a positive bias. It’s not something we haven’t known is a danger, but this is a nice way to standardize methods with some experimental backing behind it.
The Coast Between 