About EVDC

EVDC – the ESA Validation Data Center (https://evdc.esa.int) – is a central, long-term repository operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) for archiving and exchanging correlative data used in the validation of atmospheric composition products from both historical and current satellite missions.

EVDC builds on the previous ENVISAT Cal/Val database system in operation at NILU since the early 2000s, and provides tools for extraction, conversion and archival of a large amount of EO data. The objective of the EVDC is to provide an online information system that supports users in managing and exploiting campaign datasets for Earth Observation missions and applications.

The database helps as a tool to monitor the quality and availability of the data provided by the data acquisition teams contracted by ESA, and it aims to support field campaigns over various seasons and latitudes.

To facilitate exchange of validation data among investigators and missions a common effort between the GEOMS group that consists of representatives of NASA, ESA, the NDACC and related universities and organizations, has led to a set of harmonized guidelines, The Generic Earth Observation Metadata Standard (GEOMS) guidelines. EVDC is fully compatible with GEOMS.

Through collaboration with the ECMWF, EVDC is providing access to daily updated analyses and forecast data files of global gridded meteorological parameters.