1. Documenting Data Quality Ted Habermann, NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC
Please view these slides as a slide show.
High-quality documentation serves many roles. The contemporaneous emergence of metadata standards and the World Wide Web during the mid-1990's focused significant attention on the discovery role. International collaboration, the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model, increased data transparency, and public scrutiny of all climate data and interpretations have recently brought focus back to the importance of the role of documentation in enabling independent understanding of data.
This Figure shows the global average of a parameter calculated from a NESDIS Satellite Product between 2002 and There is an obvious 50% increase in this parameter during late Such an abrupt large change would not be expected over the whole globe. Why did this happen? The text box reflects the current state of the documentation for this dataset. The scientist responsible for the product checked their archive and came up with a very vague explanation of the change from indirect references in the . The final statement "hopefully this settles the issue.." may be sufficient in the scientific community of experts that know these data, but it is unlikely to satisfy non-experts that question the integrity of scientists and the scientific process. Also, of course, archives and personal recollections are impossible to reliably preserve.
This example is, unfortunately, not an exception to the rule.
Documentation: It’s not just discovery... 1

2. DQ_Scope <<CodeList>> MD_ScopeCode
+ attribute + feature
+ attributeType + featureType
+ collectionHardware + propertyType
+ collectionSession + fieldSession
+ dataset + software
+ series + service
+ nonGeographicDataset + model
+ dimensionGroup + tile
<<DataType>>
DQ_Scope
+ level : MD_ScopeCode
+ extent [0..1] : EX_Extent
+ levelDescription [0..*] : MD_ScopeDescription
<<Union>>
MD_ScopeDescription
+ attributes : Set<GF_AttributeType>
+ features : Set<GF_FeatureType>
+ featureInstances : Set<GF_FeatureType>
+ attributeInstances : Set<GF_AttributeType>
+ dataset : CharacterString
+ other : CharacterString

3. DQ_Result DQ_Result + resultScope: DQ_Scope [0..1]
DQ_ConformanceResult
+ specification : CI_Citation
+ explanation : CharacterString
+ pass : Boolean
DQ_QuantitativeResult
+ valueType [0..1] : RecordType
+ valueUnit : UnitOfMeasure
+ errorStatistic [0..1] : CharacterString
+ value [1..*] : Record
DQ_DescriptiveResult
+ statement: CharacterString
QE_CoverageResult
+ resultFile : MX_DataFile
+ resultFormat: MD_Format
+ resultContentDescription: MD_CoverageDescription
+ resultSpatialRepresentation: MD_SpatialRepresentation
+ spatialRepresentationType : MD_SpatialRepresentationTypeCode

4. Measure Registry / Database
DQ_MeasureReference
+ measureIdentification: MD_Identifier [0..1]
+ nameOfMeasure: CharacterString [0..*]
+ measureDescription: CharacterString [0..1]
Quality Measure
measure identifier
name
alias
element name
basic measure
definition
description
parameter
value type
value structure
source reference
example
<<DataType>>
MD_Identifier
+ authority [0..1] : CI_Citation
+ code : CharacterString
+ codeSpace [0..1] : CharacterString
+ version [0..1] : CharacterString

5. Data Quality - Granules

6. Data Quality - Standards
LI_Lineage
<<Union>>
MD_ScopeDescription
+ attributes : Set<GF_AttributeType>
+ features : Set<GF_FeatureType>
+ featureInstances : Set<GF_FeatureType>
+ attributeInstances : Set<GF_AttributeType>
+ dataset : CharacterString
+ other : CharacterString
MI_Metadata
DQ_DataQuality
+ scope : DQ_Scope
DQ_StandaloneReportInformation
+ reportReference : CI_Citation
+ abstract: CharacterString
+ standAloneReport 0..1
+ report 0..*
<<Abstract>>
DQ_Element
<<DataType>>
DQ_Scope
+ level : MD_ScopeCode
+ extent [0..1] : EX_Extent
+ levelDescription [0..*] :
<<CodeList>>
MD_EvaluationMethodTypeCode
+ directInternal
+ directExternal
+ indirect
DQ_MeasureReference
DQ_Evaluation
DQ_Result
+ resultScope: DQ_Scope [0..1]
DQ_DescriptiveResult
DQ_CoverageResult
<<CodeList>>
MD_ScopeCode
+ attribute + feature
+ attributeType + featureType
+ collectionHardware + propertyType
+ collectionSession + fieldSession
+ dataset + software
+ series + service
+ nonGeographicDataset + model
+ dimensionGroup + tile
DQ_QuantitativeResult
+ valueType [0..1] : RecordType
+ valueUnit : UnitOfMeasure
+ errorStatistic [0..1] : CharacterString
+ value [1..*] : Record
DQ_ConformanceResult
+ specification : CI_Citation
+ explanation : CharacterString
+ pass : Boolean

7. Community - the Wiki