GEO/CEOS workshop on Quality Assurance of Calibration & Validation Processes:
- Establishing an Operational Framework
Organized by ESA (European Space Agency) and
NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
Hosted by NIST, NOAA, and NASA
To be held at NIST, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA
May 6-8, 2008
- Please register (click
here) for the workshop as soon as possible to expedite
the security check.
- Logistics information
at NIST.
Hotels:
Special arrangements have been made for this workshop with Holiday Inn
at Gaithersburg for the rate of $109 + Tax (30 rooms reserved, first
come, first serve!). Please contact the
hotel directly for reservation, and ask for the special rate for the
"GEO-CEOS Meeting at NIST". Contact information:
Holiday
Inn
2 Montgomery Village Ave., Gaithersburg, Md.. 20879
(301) 948-8900 Fax: (301) 258-1940
Many other hotels are available in the area and most of them
offer government rate if booked early ($201 per night). For
example,
Gaithersburg
Hilton
620 Perry Parkway, Gaithersburg, Md.. 20877
(301) 977-8900 Fax: (301) 869-8597
If
you have a car and don't mind driving ~10 minutes (~3 miles), there is
a nice area
near the lake at Washingtonian where several hotels and restaurants can
be found:
Gaithersburg
Marriott Washingtonian Center
9751 Washingtonian Blvd., Gaithersburg, Md. 20878
(301) 590-0044 Fax: (301) 212-6155
Courtyard Gaithersburg
Washingtonian Center
204 Boardwalk
Place, Gaithersburg, Md. 20878
(301)
527-9000 Fax: (301) 527-9001
Residence
Inn by Marriott-Gaithersburg
9721 Washingtonian Blvd, Gaithersburg, MD 20878
(301) 590-3003 Fax: (301) 590-2722
SpringHill Suites by
Marriott-Gaithersburg
9715 Washingtonian Blvd., Gaithersburg, MD 20878
(301) 987-0900 Fax: (301) 987-0500
For NIST location and other hotel
information, click
here
Workshop
Background:
This is the second workshop as a follow-up to the
previous
one sponsored by ESA (European Space Agency) and GEO (Group on Earth
Observations),
which was held in Geneva, Switzerland
October 2-5, 2007.
These
workshops directly address the GEO task of developing a data quality
assurance
strategy for GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems).
The
focus of the second workshop is to review the progress made on the
tasks of
harmonization of data quality procedures and build an implementation
strategy
for world wide satellite remote sensing operations.
There is a current requirement to harmonise
and standardise satellite data handling
across the
international community. Active
discussions on data quality control (QC) and calibration and validation
(Cal/Val) processes, and on how these can be homogenised
and carry a globally-recognised
“certification” or
endorsement, are imperative. This type
of dialogue and its resulting recommendations would go some way towards
the
Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)’s ultimate goal for
data
inter-operability and inter-comparison.
CEOS, through the WGCV, has identified that is
needs to take
a more active role in these discussions.
In particular, the WGCV has agreed that it should initiate
dialogue with
the international community to reach an agreement on how QC and Cal/Val
processes
should be incorporated into satellite programmes,
and
this is fully backed by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). The first GEO/CEOS workshop on Cal/Val
processes was thus held on October 2007 in Geneva
and the second one will be held at NIST in May 2008.
The ultimate objective of the workshops would
be to define a set of CEOS-approved standards and potentially to
provide
operators of QC and Cal/Val processes with a type of CEOS endorsement.
As the organizer of the workshops, ESA plays a
central role
in the QC and Cal/Val processes discussions and in the workshop for the
benefit
of its future operations. The WGCV are
at the forefront of establishing global standards and process/data
certification/classification and ESA should retain its leading position
within
this group to ensure an influential role.
The workshop, to be hosted by NIST, NOAA, and NASA, from May 6-8, 2008, has the full
support of
the GEO secretariat and CEOS.
Draft Workshop Agenda
(March 18, 2008, Subject to further changes)
Tuesday 6 May
09:00 Registration
09:30 NIST
09:50 CEOS
10:10 GEO
10:30 VIP (tbc)
11:00 Coffee break
11:30 The need for a QA
strategy (Lecomte)
12:00 Methodology &
guidelines for Cal/Val (Fox)
12:30 Lunch
14:00 Cal/Val sites (Stensaas)
14:30 Satellite & in
situ data access (Bojkov)
15:00 Harmonisation
of quality information (Lecomte)
15:30 Coffee
16:00 Actions &
Guidelines
16:30 Report from WGCV
taskforce to address governance for Cal/Val processes / guidelines (Mackin)
17:00 Discussion &
questions
17:30 Workshop objectives & implementation
18:00 Close
Wednesday 7 May
Harmonisation
08:30 Guest speaker #1
09:00 Discussion
10:15 Coffee break
10:45 Guest speaker #2
11:15 Discussion
12:30 Lunch
Data
Policy
14:00 Guest speaker #3
14:30 Discussion
15:45 Coffee break
16:15 Guest speaker #4
16:45 Discussion
18:00 Close
Thursday 8 May
Implementation
08:30 Guest speaker #5
09:00 Discussion
10:15 Coffee break
10:45 Guest speaker #6
11:15 Discussion
12:30 Lunch
Conclusion
& Wrap-up (Ungar)