CEOS Analysis Ready Data For Land – An Overview on the Current and Future Work

Analysis Ready Data (ARD) products are enabling users to get first hand satellite data that are ‘ready to use’ for a wide range of applications, including time-series analysis and the way forward to multi-sensor interoperability. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) is leading the CEOS Analysis Ready Data for Land (CARD4L) initiative. The rationale behind this initiative is to enable users to access products that have been already processed to a certain level. This will allow users to carry out immediate analysis on the data and to address a variety of applications without the extra time and cost that is associated with the data pre-processing steps. The aim of the proposed paper is to give an overview on the work already carried out by the CEOS community on the CARD4L framework, to introduce the processes and steps that Earth Observation (EO) data providers should undertake to have a CARD4L level product as well as the planned steps that CEOS LSIVC will be undertaking to accomplish the CARD4L initiative.