System Requirements at CCI Programme Level

The Climate Change Initiative programme as a whole has defined System Requirements and Data Standards in two documents. I, Owen, SST CCI project manager (Hugh) and the SST CCI system engineering team (Ralf and Martin) reviewed those documents against our plans last week. This was partly in response to a query from ESA, and we thought it worthwhile to look at the issues in detail for our own benefit from the point of view of making sure the system we are building is as good as possible.

The brief conclusions are:

1. SST CCI is fully in line with the data standards, since the data standards are compatible with GHRSST standards
2. The SST CCI project will internally meet 50% of the CCI programme system requirements (SRs) in Phase 2
3. We think 25% of the SRs can only be done through programme-level investment and activity (some of which is foreseen, e.g., data portal work will be commissioned by ESA)
4. We think 12% of the SRs are relevant only in the context of sustained operations after Phase 2, and will require additional work on the SST CCI system at that time
5. We question, disagree with or don't understand the remaining requirements

It was useful to us to have identified through this exercise the SRs that fall into category 4.