Data Quality

EarthCARE
Data
Data Quality

Data quality, which includes quality control, performance monitoring, and calibration and validation, is routinely carried out to ensure that EarthCARE meets its mission and data quality requirements.

EarthCARE Quality Control Reports

EarthCARE Quality Control (QC) Reports are produced on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, covering products produced from all three ESA instruments, ATLID, BBR and MSI.

EarthCARE Daily Quality Control Reports

The daily QC reports provide the quality status of the instruments and products from the previous day. Information in the daily QC reports includes a daily production visualization, data completeness, quality flag warnings and failures, and comparison with Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) forecasts.

Download EarthCARE daily reports

Product Availability

Information related to the availability of EarthCARE data, including periods of planned and unplanned data unavailability, is provided in an Excel spreadsheet report. This report will be updated every day with the latest gaps. The initial version of the report is v1.0, and it will continue to have this version number with each daily update. The file version number will only be updated following either a reprocessing of the whole dataset (e.g. v2.0) or a reanalysis of the gaps (e.g. v1.1).

Download the data unavailability report

Quality Control Disclaimers

This section describes the different Quality Control disclaimers that affect the publicly available EarthCARE data products. Each disclaimer has been given an ID number. The disclaimers are sorted by the date in which the issue first occurred, with all subsequent occurrences of this issue listed in the same section. This table will be updated with new disclaimers as they are identified.

Please note that data from before the public data release on 14 January 2025 are not covered in this table.

ID	Anomaly Start Time	First Affected Frame	Anomaly Stop Time	Last Affected Frame	Data Types Affected	Baseline	Disclaimer Description
1	13/01/2025 07:53:51	03508G	20/01/2025 15:43:42	03683A	ATL_NOM_1B	AD	A hot pixel (186-187) appeared in Crosspolar in frame 03508G onwards. The hot pixel was calibrated on the Dark Current Calibration (DCC) of the 16th of Jan
2	16/01/2025 11:05:07	03617H	20/01/2025 15:43:42	03683B	ATL_NOM_1B	AD	Data processed with anomalous DCC that contained two outliers. This introduced a bias in data, specially evident in C and H frames, due to the smaller geophysical signal (degradation was a constant bias not dependant on signal power). The anomaly was corrected by disseminating the previously available Calibration and Characterisation Database (CCDB) calibration, containing nominal measurements. These frames have not been regenerated so the anomaly remains.
3	16/01/2025 11:16:56 23/01/2025 00:47:50 30/01/2025 00:31:48 05/02/2025 03:29:29 06/02/2025 00:59:40 09/02/2025 03:02:08 13/02/2025 05:21:00 18/02/2025 03:38:00	03618A 03720B 03842H 03908F 03938B 03986B 04049H 04111A	19/01/2025 00:58:40 23/01/2025 03:29:32 30/01/2025 02:16:10 05/02/2025 11:58:11 07/02/2025 00:13:16 09/02/2025 09:52:13 13/02/2025 05:38:00 18/02/2025 03:55:00	03658A 03721G 03829H 03929E 03953A 03990D 04049H 04111A	BBR_NOM_1B	AD	For the periods heighlighted, BBR_NOM_1B frames exhibit gaps populated with NaN. This is under investigation and is believed to originate from a Software Problem Report (SPR) of the Level 1 processor (TBC). Note that not all frames are affected. There is no evidence of quality degradation outside the missing data.
4	20/01/2025 06:05:04	03676H	20/01/2025 08:23:51	03678C	ATL_NOM_1B	AD	A hot pixel (105) suddently appeared in Mie frame 03676H, that quickly faded out in two abrupt steps. The effects of the hot pixel can be considered residual from then on.
5	21/01/2025 21:01:51 28/01/2025 19:36:47 02/02/2025 18:22:38 04/02/2025 22:55:09 11/02/2025 19:57:00 16/02/2025 03:17:00	03701B 03810B 03887B 03921B 04028B 04095B	21/01/2025 21:13:52 28/01/2025 19:48:47 02/02/2025 18:34:39 04/02/2025 23:11:55 11/02/2025 20:03:00 16/02/2025 03:24:00	03701B 03810B 03887B 03921B 04028B 04095B	ATL_NOM_1B	AD	After Orbital Control Manoeuvres (OCMs) and DCCs, the ATL_NOM_1B backscatter exhibits anomalous signatures in all three channels. This is under investigation and may originate from improper Doppler compensation of the frequency (TBC). The first frame after an OCM is considered degraded and should not be used for scientific exploitation.
6	27/01/2025 12:57:48	03790Z	28/01/2025 15:10:56	03807C	MSI_NOM_1B MSI_RGR_1C	AF	MSI products from the AF baseline are computed using an incorrect CCDB file, due to an orchestration problem. Consequently, the Solar Spectral Irradiances are not properly computed and shouldn’t be trusted. The orchestration was corrected and the anomaly resolved from frame 03807C onwards.

Reprocessing Quality Updates

EarthCARE data will be reprocessed periodically. The reprocessed data will undergo QC similar to that carried out operationally. This section will provide information related to the reprocessed data quality, including relevant QC reports.

Instrument Status and Overpass Information

An overpass is when the field of view of a satellite’s instrument passes over an area of interest (AOI). EarthCARE overpass information is provided by the ESA Validation Data Centre (EVDC) using their Orbit Prediction and Overpass Tool (OPOT).

EarthCARE overpasses of radioastronomy (RAS) sites are also available from the Payload Data Ground Segment (PDGS). View the list of time periods when the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) instrument on-board EarthCARE is visible from RAS. Download flyover reports from the overpasses.

Calibration/Validation

Calibration activities ensure that the EarthCARE instruments are performing well and to their established baselines. Validation activities ensure that the EarthCARE data and products are meaningful and well characterised with respect to uncertainties due to sensitivity or resolution.

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