New Analysis Ready Data Product Family Specifications: Aquatic Reflectance

On 23 February 2022, CEOS’s Land Surface Imaging Virtual Constellation (LSI-VC) endorsed a new Analysis Ready Data (ARD) Product Family Specification (PFS) for Aquatic Reflectance (AR) products. Following the provisional endorsement of the AR PFS at the LSI-VC-10 meeting in May 2021, the team at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), GEO AquaWatch and related science experts have worked to determine citable references for each of the new requirements significant to the AR community. Thanks especially go to Andreia Siqueira from Geoscience Australia (GA) and Chris Barnes (KBR), a contractor to the USGS, as the main coordinators for this work, and to Arnold Dekker from SatDek as the Technical Lead for the GEO AquaWatch and related science experts team.

CEOS Analysis Ready Data (ARD) are satellite data that have been processed to a minimum set of requirements and organised into a form that allows immediate analysis with less additional user effort and interoperability both through time and with other datasets. Product Family Specifications (PFS) are the core component of the CEOS ARD concept and describe what is needed for a product to be classified as CEOS ARD. Each product type has its own PFS, specific to the requirements of the data provider and user communities. CEOS currently has PFS for Surface Reflectance, Surface Temperature, Normalised Radar Backscatter, and Polarimetric Radar, with Aquatic Reflectance now added to this list. CEOS also has PFS under development for Nighttime Lights Surface Radiance, Geocoded Single-Look Complex (GSLC), Interferometric Radar (INSAR), and LiDAR Terrain and Canopy Top Height, all expected to be finalised throughout 2022.

An example of a potential CEOS ARD is the Landsat 8 Provisional Aquatic Reflectance product, which is derived from Landsat 8 Level-1 reflective visible spectral bands over inland water bodies and nearshore coastal regions. More information can be found here.

The AR PFS Version 1.0 has been published on ceos.org/ard and is ready for use. Feedback from the community and data providers is welcome at all times and will be input to the annual PFS update cycle, ensuring the PFS remains up-to-date, relevant and consistent with the full collection of CEOS ARD PFS.