MISR Quality Statements

September 30, 2014

SUMMARY STATEMENT

Intensive assessment of MISR product data quality is underway. Focused studies of some parameters have been completed. Uncertainties for specific parameters are reported in the individual quality statements. Quality designators indicate the maturity of products and individual parameters, and include "Beta", "Provisional", "Validated Stage 1", "Validated Stage 2", and "Validated Stage 3".

Maturity Level Definitions

Beta: Early release products for users to gain familiarity with data formats and parameters.
Provisional: Limited comparisons with independent sources have been made and obvious artifacts fixed.
Validated Stage 1: Uncertainties are estimated from independent measurements at selected locations and times.
Validated Stage 2: Uncertainties are estimated from more widely distributed independent measurements.
Validated Stage 3: Uncertainties are estimated from independent measurements representing global conditions.

A product may contain parameters at varying quality levels.

ORGANIZATION

This document relates to the NEW MISR Level 2 and Level 3 products released starting in 2012. Currently the Level 2 TC_CLOUD product and the Level 3 CMV product are available. This page will be updated as more products are released.

It is important to note that dates on quality statements correspond to the date when the MISR product was generated, not to the date when the raw data was acquired by the MISR instrument. Links to older quality statements are available from the current Quality Statement pages. For a thorough description of MISR software version history, see the Versioning Page.

SPECIFIC STATEMENTS

Statement Concerning Quality of MISR Level 2 Cloud Products dated June 19, 2014 addresses the following products:

L2TC Cloud (a.k.a. TC_CLOUD, MIL2TCSP) (Provisional - Cross-track Cloud Motion Components), (Stage 1 Validated - Cloud Motion Vectors, Cloud Top Heights, Stereo Derived Cloud Mask), (Stage 3 Validated - Cloud Top Heights Without Wind Correction)

Statement Concerning Quality of MISR Level 3 CMV Product dated September 30, 2014 addresses the following L3 Cloud Motion Vector product:

Level 3 Cloud Motion Vector (a.k.a. MI3MCMVN, MI3QCMVN, MI3YCMVN) (Stage 1 Validated)

Statement Concerning Quality of MISR Level 3 Joint Aerosol Product dated October 15, 2012 addresses the following product:

Level 3 Joint Aerosol (a.k.a. MIL3MJTA) (Stage 3 Validated)

ANCILLARY PRODUCTS

The following ancillary data products impact the quality of many of the MISR Standard Products already described. Individual quality statements regarding these ancillary products are provided both to complement Standard Product quality information and to satisfy those who order the ancillary products.