Release

On April 26, 2026, NASA's Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released the Joint Earth Observation Mission Quality Assessment Framework - Optical Guidelines.

Purpose

The document outlines a standardized methodology for assessing the quality of optical data from commercial satellite providers. It is a key output of the collaboration between ESA's Earthnet Data Assessment Project (EDAP) and NASA's CSDA program.

Contents

The framework includes:

• Summary of the Joint Earth Observation Mission Quality Assessment Framework and its core objectives.
• Review of optical mission quality as evidenced by documentation.
• Guidelines for verifying data quality consistency with stated sensor performance.
• Appendices on common practices for radiometric and geometric calibration and validation.

"The guidelines document the standards for commercial data and aim to increase user confidence in CSDA's commercial data acquisitions."
— Dana Ostrenga, CSDA Project Manager

Background

The rapid growth of commercial Earth observation (EO) satellite systems prompted space agencies to develop a standardized framework for data quality assessment. ESA established EDAP to provide early assessment of mission data, which eventually led to this joint framework. Meanwhile, NASA's CSDA program has its own evaluation process focusing on:

• Geometric and radiometric quality
• Validation against reference datasets
• Documentation completeness
• Data accessibility

Future

The agencies plan to regularly update the guidelines in response to market evolution and advances in Earth sciences and EO data applications.