The Land products have different levels of maturity, reflecting when they were produced and so the algorithms and input data used in their production. To guide the user community the Land Science Team has defined the following three levels of product maturity:

Beta

• early release product, minimally validated and may still contain significant errors
• available to allow users to gain familiarity with data formats and parameters
• product is not appropriate as the basis for quantitative scientific publications

• product quality may not be optimal
• incremental product improvements are still occurring
• general research community is encouraged to participate in the QA and validation of the product, but need to be aware that product validation and QA are ongoing
• users are urged to contact science team representatives prior to use of the data in publications
• may be replaced in the archive when the validated product becomes available

• product uncertainties are well defined over a range of representative conditions
• ready for use in scientific publications, and by other agencies
• there may be later improved versions
• there are three validation stages:
  • Stage 1 Validation: Product accuracy has been estimated using a small number of independent measurements obtained from selected locations and time periods and ground-truth/field program effort.
  • Stage 2 Validation: Product accuracy has been assessed over a widely distributed set of locations and time periods via several ground-truth and validation efforts.
  • Stage 3 Validation: Product accuracy has been assessed and the uncertainties in the product well established via independent measurements in a systematic and statistically robust way representing global conditions.

Updated 10 February 2003