The Science Quality Flag and the Science Quality Flag Explanation metadata are set by the Land science team and LDOPE staff to document the quality of the Land products. By default all Land products should initially be set with a Science Quality Flag of "Not Investigated" and with a blank Science Quality Flag Explanation or a Science Quality Flag Explanation that points to the Land product quality documentation web site. These metadata may be updated for all the instances of a product or with increasing specificity: for example, with respect to certain geographic and temporal domains, to a particular algorithm version, or to individual product granules and tiles.

The Science Quality Flag metadata may be set to one of seven valid categories:

• Passed
• Suspect
• Failed
• Inferred Passed
• Inferred Failed
• Being Investigated
• Not Investigated [ Default ]

The Science Quality Flag Explanation metadata is a free format text field used to explain the setting of the Science Quality Flag and provide supporting information. This metadata can store up to 255 characters.