This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 640276.
G6.07 Different data policies harm the use of complementary data from different networks
Submitted by Anna Mikalsen on 12 June, 2017 - 15:43
Gap abstract:
Most networks have grown bottom-up and each one has established its own specific data policy. The consequence hereof is that portals providing access to data from several networks, or users who combine data from different networks in a study or application, must deal with different data policies. This makes the combined use of complementary data quite tedious, also requiring for the user to be familiar with the different data policies used in order to fully conversant with the stated policies.
Part I Gap description
Primary gap type:
- Governance (missing documentation, cooperation etc.)
ECVs impacted:
- Temperature,Water vapour, Ozone, Aerosols, Carbon Dioxide, Methane
User category/Application area impacted:
- Operational services and service development (meteorological services, environmental services, Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS), operational data assimilation development, etc.)
- Climate research (research groups working on development, validation and improvement of ECV Climate Data Records)
Non-satellite instrument techniques involved:
- Independent of instrument technique
Detailed description:
Many of the existing data policies can be very different, e.g.,
- completely open access for all users including commercial users;
- open access for research purposes only;
- open access after a set time delay;
- access only upon request to PI.
The use of more open data policies supports increasing the quality, quantity and re-use of the data for multiple applications. However, in order to maximise the discovery and innovation of data would require increased coordination in order to harmonize data and license policies. Currently users need to become familiar with the different policies before they can confidently combine data or use of portals that provide data from multiple networks thus limiting the interoperability of data from different sources. This gap affects the validation of any satellite mission, for whatever ECV or application.
Validation aspects addressed:
- Radiance (Level 1 product)
- Geophysical product (Level 2 product)
- Gridded product (Level 3)
- Assimilated product (Level 4)
- Time series and trends
- Representativity (spatial, temporal)
- Calibration (relative, absolute)
- Spectroscopy
- Auxiliary parameters (clouds, lightpath, surface albedo, emissivity)
Part II Benefits to resolution and risks to non-resolution
| Identified benefit | User category/Application area benefitted | Probability of benefit being realised | Impacts |
|---|---|---|---|
Open access to all available geophysical data, for any user. |
|
| Better use of the data, especially for commercial purposes – with possibly new market-oriented applications; Open data standards support increased transparency, wider applicability , understanding, and re-use of data, as well as interoperability of data. |
Data providers can highlight the use of their data to their funding agencies for justifying the cost of the data acquisition and provision. |
|
| Funding agencies get more convinced about the cost-effectiveness of supporting observations. |
| Identified risk | User category/Application area at risk | Probability of risk being realised | Impacts |
|---|---|---|---|
Certain data sets remain hidden for some time or remain unexploited. |
|
| It is more tedious or even costly for a user to get hold of the data he/she needs. Funding agencies get frustrated about the cost-effectiveness of supporting observations. |
Users do not comply with individual data policies e.g., in publications. |
|
| Data providers get frustrated and will release less data. Limited understanding of data policies continues to lower effective and accurate use of data. |
Part III Gap remedies
Gap remedies:
Remedy 1: Coordination at European level to harmonise data and licence policies by extending the use of existing technical standards
Primary gap remedy type:
Governance
Relevance:
The remedy of adopting an open data policy means that once the data are submitted to the data archive/data centre, they are public for all users, including commercial users. This facilitates and stimulates the use of the data and stimulates the (combined) use of complementary data from different networks, hence a larger cost-effectiveness of the networks. To make this option acceptable for the data providers, the latter should get credit for their data. The funding organisations must be made aware of the use of the data, as an encouragement to sustain the data acquisition. Harmonisation of data policies facilitates the data access in data portals and for data users – stimulating the (combined) use of complementary data from different networks, hence a more beneficial use of the networks data.
Measurable outcome of success:
The adoption of an open data policy by all networks and the enhanced utilisation of the data will demonstrate the success of the remedy.
Scale of work:
- Programmatic multi-year, multi-institution activity
Time bound to remedy:
- Less than 3 years
Indicative cost estimate (investment):
- Low cost (< 1 million)
Indicative cost estimate (exploitation):
- Yes
Potential actors:
- National funding agencies
- National Meteorological Services
- National measurement institutes