Management of Data Quality Information in NASA's Earth Science Data Systems

NASA’s Earth Observation System Data and Information Systems (EOSDIS) is a distributed, multi-petabyte archive, distribution, and processing system containing thousands of unique data collections. EOSDIS supports the needs of hundreds of thousands of users from science discipline data centers and investigator processing systems distributed across the United States. EOSDIS provides data to users that come from diverse science discipline communities with data discovery, access, and data services tailored to specific science domains. Data quality refers to the degree of excellence exhibited by the data in relation to the portrayal of actual geophysical phenomena. It reflects the completeness, validity, consistency, timeliness, and accuracy that make data appropriate for specific uses. As large volumes of new and increasingly complex data from future decadal survey and other missions become available in EOSDIS, the need for users to easily obtain accurate and reliable data quality information will be critically important. Given the complexity of Earth science data products, a challenge for NASA data systems is how to convey data quality information at the measurement record level, the product level, and the pixel level in both human- and machine-readable forms to growing and diverse user communities. Although a “one size fits all” solution is neither achievable nor desired, developing a common framework and approach, and adherence to standards will be necessary. Also necessary will be a common and coordinated understanding of quality terms and their application. From a data systems perspective, the focus of this presentation is to inform the broader Earth science community of NASA's current and future efforts and to solicit feedback.