ESDS Program

Data Maturity Levels

Beta

Products intended to enable users to gain familiarity with the parameters and the data formats.

Provisional

Product was defined to facilitate data exploration and process studies that do not require rigorous validation. These data are partially validated and improvements are continuing; quality may not be optimal since validation and quality assurance are ongoing.

Validated

Products are high quality data that have been fully validated and quality checked, and that are deemed suitable for systematic studies such as climate change, as well as for shorter term, process studies. These are publication quality data with well-defined uncertainties, but they are also subject to continuing validation, quality assurance, and further improvements in subsequent versions. Users are expected to be familiar with quality summaries of all data before publication of results; when in doubt, contact the appropriate instrument team.

  • Stage 1 Validation: Product accuracy is estimated using a small number of independent measurements obtained from selected locations and time periods and ground-truth/field program efforts.
  • Stage 2 Validation: Product accuracy is estimated over a significant set of locations and time periods by comparison with reference in situ or other suitable reference data. Spatial and temporal consistency of the product and with similar products has been evaluated over globally representative locations and time periods. Results are published in the peer-reviewed literature.
  • Stage 3 Validation: Product accuracy has been assessed. Uncertainties in the product and its associated structure are well quantified from comparison with reference in situ or other suitable reference data. Uncertainties are characterized in a statistically robust way over multiple locations and time periods representing global conditions. Spatial and temporal consistency of the product and with similar products has been evaluated over globally representative locations and periods. Results are published in the peer-reviewed literature.
  • Stage 4 Validation: Validation results for stage 3 are systematically updated when new product versions are released and as the time-series expands.
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