The 1st QA4EO Cal/Val Workshop was held from 19 to 21 February 2020 in "La Sapienza" University in Rome, Italy.

QA4EO (Quality Assurance for Earth Observation) is the new framework, which replaced the data quality service series of contracts of which IDEAS+ (Instrument Data Evaluation and Analysis Service) has been the last. The key purpose of the QA4EO service is to ensure, on behalf of ESA SPPA section, the best possible quality of EO products made available to the end users. In order to achieve this goal, the QA4EO service covers a wide range of activities, such as data quality control, calibration, validation, algorithm evolution, and processor updates.

As part of the overall QA4EO service, the Task 2 Cal/Val is where innovative ideas are encouraged and incubated with the long-term goal to propose and validate new approaches and methods for improving the accuracy and uncertainty estimate of ESA operational products. The QA4EO Task 2 is built around two main components: Metrology and Cal/Val. The metrology component is the foundation element around which the R&D and Cal/Val activities are developed with the final goal of ensuring that ESA satellite products are fit for the purpose and meet, and eventually exceed, the mission requirements set in the MRD.

Regular workshops are held every nine months with the whole QA4EO Task 2 Cal/Val teams in order to review the status of current activities, foster synergies among the various groups and agree on the planning for the future.

The main objectives of the workshop were:

• To review the status and the planning of the QA4EO Cal/Val projects
• To encourage synergies across different Cal/Val activities
• To foster new ideas and explore potential evolutions
• To formulate recommendations for improvements on Cal/Val protocols/methodologies, validation data analysis and associated algorithm baseline evolution

Download the Proceedings and Recommendations from the 1st IDEAS-QA4EO Cal/Val Workshop

Organisation committee