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.