Assessing Field Spectroscopy Metadata Quality

• Main Authors: Barbara A. Rasaiah, Simon. D. Jones, Chris Bellman, Tim J. Malthus, Andreas Hueni
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2015-04-01
• Series: Remote Sensing
• Subjects: metadata; databases; data quality; field spectroscopy
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/7/4/4499

This paper presents the proposed criteria for measuring the quality and completeness of field spectroscopy metadata in a spectral archive. Definitions for metadata quality and completeness for field spectroscopy datasets are introduced. Unique methods for measuring quality and completeness of metadata to meet the requirements of field spectroscopy datasets are presented. Field spectroscopy metadata quality can be defined in terms of (but is not limited to) logical consistency, lineage, semantic and syntactic error rates, compliance with a quality standard, quality assurance by a recognized authority, and reputational authority of the data owners/data creators. Two spectral libraries are examined as case studies of operationalized metadata policies, and the degree to which they are aligned with the needs of field spectroscopy scientists. The case studies reveal that the metadata in publicly available spectral datasets are underperforming on the quality and completeness measures. This paper is part two in a series examining the issues central to a metadata standard for field spectroscopy datasets.