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Data Evaluation

NASA evaluates commercial data to ensure they meet the agency’s standards for scientific quality, accuracy, and usability.

An artist's rendering of a satellite in orbit above Earth.

Delivering Science-as-a-Service

NASA’s Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program delivers “science as a service” by providing the Earth science community with operational, turnkey access to rigorously assessed commercial satellite data. Through CSDA, NASA acquires commercial Earth observation datasets, curates them within a stable, API‑driven delivery infrastructure with standardized metadata, and ensures that all datasets undergo independent scientific evaluation for quality, accuracy, and fitness for purpose.

This model enables NASA researchers to rely on trusted, validated data products without needing to independently procure, calibrate, or verify commercial sources, effectively transforming commercial data into a ready‑to‑use scientific service. By maintaining consistent evaluation frameworks, offering repeatable acquisition processes, and developing workflows and tools that integrate seamlessly into scientific analysis, CSDA reduces barriers to commercial data adoption and accelerates scientific discovery across NASA’s Earth science portfolio.

NASA Approach - CSDA Process 

As noted in the 2018 Decadal Survey, a document that captures the consensus within the scientific community on the most pressing and promising areas of research and directs NASA's strategic priorities and mission directives  for the next decade, NASA must “ensure that commercial data meet the quality standards required for scientific analyses and operational applications, particularly in the area of climate observations for which accuracy, precision, and stability are critical to characterizing and understanding change.” 

To meet that requirement, the Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program ensures that commercial Earth observation data meet rigorous standards for Earth science research and applications through its own comprehensive evaluation process. The key evaluation components of this process are: 

  • Product Information – completeness and clarity of product details, metadata, versioning, documentation, and overall accessibility
  • Metrology – rigor and transparency of radiometric and geometric calibration, characterization, uncertainty analysis, and ancillary data traceability
  • Product Generation – soundness of the algorithms, methodologies, and mission‑specific processing steps used to produce higher‑level data products
  • User Support & Expertise – the provider’s capacity to supply timely, technically knowledgeable support to NASA researchers and applications teams
  • Utility - how well a commercial data product meets the needs of Earth science research and applications, including its fitness for scientific analysis, its complementarity to NASA datasets, and its practical value for change detection, calibration, and other mission objectives

This graphic illustrates the NASA Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition program evaluation life cycle from the acquisition to contracting process, to data quality assessment and data utility evaluation to decision and publication outcomes.
NASA CSDA program

Commercial Data Provider
On-ramping and Evaluation 

CSDA provides structured on-ramping opportunities for emerging commercial satellite data vendors, enabling NASA to continuously integrate innovative data sources as the private sector evolves. By leveraging these partnerships, NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) aims to accelerate scientific discovery and expand applications of Earth observation data for societal benefit.  

CSDA’s rigorous and high-quality evaluation process relies on a select group of subject matter experts (SMEs) to assess, validate, and ensure the long-term scientific quality and utility of commercial remote sensing data. These experts play a strategic role in bridging scientific needs with commercial capabilities and advancing Earth science research and applications. This approach not only ensures NASA gains timely access to high-quality, mission-relevant commercial data, but also provides valuable feedback to private-sector providers, fostering innovation, improved data products, and alignment of industry capabilities with NASA’s evolving scientific needs. 

Quality and Evaluation Framework

NASA evaluates commercial data to ensure commercial datasets meet NASA’s scientific quality, accuracy, and usability standards; protect NASA research integrity by validating data before broad scientific use and support informed decision-making on which commercial datasets provide meaningful benefit to NASA missions. In turn, these efforts: 

  • Benefit NASA science and missions through the expansion of access to novel Earth observation measurements not available through NASA-owned assets and enhancing temporal and spatial coverage of key Earth system variables Helps fil observation gaps and increase resilience through diverse, multisource data
  • Strengthen NASA open science principles by ensuring data are suitable for release and use within NASA's open-science ecosystem, enabling broad access for the research community and government partners, and promoting transparency and consistent standards across commercial data providers
  • Enhance programmatic and strategic value by providing a structured, repeatable framework for assessing rapidly evolving commercial capabilities, reducing risk by identifying technical limitations before acquisition, helping NASA partner more effectively with US industry and leverage commercial innovations, and aligning investments with mission needs and maximizing return on data procurement
  • Better position NASA for the future by supporting faster integration of emerging commercial measurement types, increasing the agency's agility as the commercial Earth observation market continues to expand, and ensuring NASA remains at the forefront of Earth science by combining government and commercial strengths

    The ESA-NASA Joint EO Mission Quality Assessment Framework 

    The CSDA program has partnered with the European Space Agency (ESA) to establish the Joint EO Mission Quality Assessment Framework that provides standardized, transparent, and repeatable data quality assessment processes and outputs to support mission selection, data integration and trusted use of EO data for science and applications. 

    ESA APPROACH- EDAP FRAMEWORK 

    The ESA’s Earthnet Data Assessment Project (EDAP+) framework assesses the quality and suitability of candidate missions under consideration for ESA’s Earthnet Program as Third Party Missions (TPM), prior to integration into ESA’s TPM data ecosystems.  

    The key elements of this framework include: 

    • Domain-specific guidelines tailored to EO data types 
      • Optical
      • Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
      • Digital Elevation Models (DEMs)  
      • Atmospheric Composition  
      • Other 
    • Comprehensive Assessment of data quality, calibration, validation, documentation and maturity
    • Operational Use in Copernicus Contributing Missions Scheme 
    • Recognized internationally for harmonized and transparent practices 

    The result is a proven approach for ensuring data suitability for integration and operational use. 

    International Collaboration

    The ESA-NASA Joint EO Mission Quality Assessment Framework has developed through strong partnerships between international forums and working groups, including the Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) and the Very High-resolution Radar & Optical Data Assessment (VH-RODA). 

    Milestones: 

    ● 2024: Official ESA – NASA signature of SAR domain guidelines 
    ● Finalizing ESA-NASA-USGS collaboration on Optical guidelines

    Additional domains in progress:

    Optical ● DEM ● Atmospheric Composition ● Others 

    Unified Framework Goals: 

    ● Maintain an official, transparent, and public framework for data quality assessment of candidate missions
    ● Serve TPM (ESA) and CSDA (NASA) programs
    ● Enable interoperability and compatibility across missions
    ● Support Copernicus Contributing Missions assessments

    The Joint Core Output Cal/Val Maturity Matrix serves as a common reference for both agencies that enables: 

    ● Cross-Mission Comparison 
    ● Interoperability & Validation 
    ● Decision Support for Integration 
    ● Transparency & Trust

    A table showing the elements of the commercial data provider evaluation process.
    Shown here is the Evaluation Matrix structure for the Optical Guidelines.
    (Note: On completion of the assessment, the matrix is filled in with the color/grades shown in the key.)
    Credit: NASA CSDA program

    The key objective of ESA’s EDAP+ is to take full advantage of the increased range of available data from non-ESA operated missions and to perform an early data assessment for various missions. These fall into one of two instrument domains: optical or synthetic aperture radar.

    The Joint ESA-NASA and USGS Earth Observation Mission Quality Assessment Framework – Optical Guidelines were released on April 26, 2026, and provide specific guidelines for the mission quality assessment of optical sensors as part of the implementation of the generic Earth Observation (EO) mission quality assessment for the optical domain.  

    This document summarizes the goals of the Joint Earth Observation Mission Quality Assessment Framework, reviews how optical mission quality is demonstrated through documentation, outlines guidelines for verifying that a mission’s data quality aligns with stated sensor performance, and provides appendices containing information on common radiometric and geometric calibration and validation practices. 

    Access optical guidelines 

    The Joint ESA-NASA and USGS Earth Observation Mission Quality Assessment Framework – Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Guidelines were released on June 9, 2026, and provide specific guidelines for the mission quality assessment of SAR sensors, as part of the implementation of the generic EO mission quality assessment for this domain. 

    This document summarizes of the mission quality assessment framework, provides a review of the SAR mission quality (as evidenced by its documentation), and offers guidelines for verifying the mission data quality is consistent with the stated performance of the sensor. 

    Access SAR joint guidelines