Phase 1 source QA
Phase 1 establishes noun/source discovery and rationalizes the existing gridMET, PRISM, and Sentinel-2 integrations. Each Phase 1 source adapter now has a checksum-controlled real-data baseline, numerical checks, and a reviewed figure. This does not imply that every variable or AOI has been validated.
The same evidence now certifies immutable CubeDynamics serving revisions. It also records deterministic schema fingerprints and applies a reusable QA profile before the source-specific scientific checks. See the source lifecycle and certification contract.
Separate from these production catalog baselines, the 3DEP, roads and USGS streamflow projects test three new source shapes. Their generated evidence is experimental; it does not add serving revisions to this table or automatically register new public nouns.
Current evidence status
| Source flavor | Serving revision | Reusable profile | Offline certification | Scheduled live endpoint test |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRISM temperature | temperature.prism@2026-08-26.1 |
climate_continuous_daily |
pass with documented caveats | yes |
| gridMET maximum temperature | temperature.gridmet@2026-08-26.1 |
climate_continuous_daily |
pass with documented caveats | yes |
| Sentinel-2 B04/B08 and derived NDVI | surface_reflectance.sentinel2@2026-08-26.1 |
continuous_raster_static |
pass with documented caveats | yes |
The pass applies to the exact products and bounded extracts named in the table. Other gridMET variables still require variable-specific scientific QA.
Reviewed PRISM result
The offline QA workflow checks:
- the NetCDF fixture SHA-256 against its provenance manifest;
- observational/source flags and explicit CRS;
- strictly increasing requested dates;
- finite values and nonempty dimensions;
- minimum temperature never exceeding maximum temperature;
- broad physical temperature bounds;
- coordinate bounds overlapping the documented AOI.
Machine-readable evidence:
Reviewed gridMET result
The gridMET baseline checks the source and SHA-256 record, EPSG:4326 CRS, strict daily dates, finite values, 1/24° resolution, known coordinate orientation, requested bounds, and a broad physically plausible Kelvin range.
Reviewed Sentinel-2 result
The Sentinel-2 baseline checks source and checksum records, native UTM CRS,
B04/B08 availability, unique ordered acquisition dates, finite pixels, 10 m
spacing, coordinate orientation, provider reflectance scale, and NDVI bounds.
QA exposed duplicate STAC processing records for the same acquisitions; the
loader now keeps the record with the latest s2:generation_time while leaving
imagery lazy.
Reproduce it
python scripts/run_source_qa.py
The command writes fresh evidence to artifacts/source_qa/. CI runs it beside
the broader publication validation suite and uploads both artifact trees. The
checked website image and JSON were produced by pointing --output at
docs/assets/source_qa after review.
Each JSON result keeps its established fields and adds qa_profile,
profile_result, schema_fingerprint, serving_revision, and a structured
certification record. A fixture-level pass is an offline_baseline; live
source health remains a separate state and workflow.
Remaining limitations
gridMET still retrieves annual files before client-side AOI selection, so a server-side subset path should replace it before Phase 2 climate expansion. The reviewed gridMET extract covers maximum temperature only. Sentinel-2 cloud metadata are retained, but the baseline does not implement pixel-level cloud masking and covers only one small South Dakota window. Live endpoint tests remain separate because an offline fixture cannot detect provider outages. Daymet remains outside implemented-source discovery. Its candidate and current authentication blocker are documented on the Daymet status page.