Principle
It is critical that data and derived products are easily accessible in an open manner and have associated with them an indicator of quality traceable to reference standards (preferably SI) so users can assess suitability for their applications, i.e. the ‘fitness for purpose’.
Traceability
A QI shall be based on documented and quantifiable assessments of evidence demonstrating the level of traceability to internationally agreed (where possible SI) reference standards.
Quality Indicators
A Quality Indicator (QI) shall provide sufficient information to allow all users to readily evaluate the fitness for purpose of Earth observation data or derived products.
Case Studies
The following case studies show examples of QA4EO compliant methodologies or ideas applied in practice, which directly followed or independently implemented QA4EO methodologies.
Levels of techncial detail within each case study ranegs from level 3 that shows examples of implementations of QA4EO in a particular field, to level 1 case studies that provide more concise descriptions.
NOAA Maturity Matrix for CDRs
Intercomparison of remote sensing derived fAPAR datasets
WELD: Web - Enabled Landsat Data
RAdiative transfer Model Intercomparison (RAMI)
GSICS Procedure for Product Acceptance (GPPA)
Getting started
Formal QA4EO Guidance documents have been supplemented by more recent guidance, produced through the work of several collaborative research projects between metrology institutes and Earth observation practitioners.
To get started, follow these suggested steps ...
This website and the metrological principles documents it hosts were developed in the frame of the Instrument Data Quality Evaluation and Assessment Service - Quality Assurance for Earth Observation (IDEAS-QA4EO) contract funded by ESA-ESRIN (n. 4000128960/19/I-NS), and builds on the work of previous projects, see Acknowledgements.