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In a project led by NPL, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and others, a team of experts have developed an Uncertainty Metadata Convention (UNC). The UNC is a proposed framework aimed at standardising how uncertainty metadata is captured and shared across observation and model datasets. The UNC is designed to enhance transparency, reproducibility, and usability of environmental and climate data by providing a consistent, human and machine-readable structure for uncertainty information, supporting more robust scientific analysis and decision-making.
The UNC aims to:
promote consistency in naming conventions and interpretation of uncertainty metadata across observational programmes
strengthen cross community collaboration between the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), reference dataset providers and modelling groups to improve how uncertainty information is communicated
encourage data and infrastructure providers such as the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) and the Observations for Model Intercomparison Project (obs4MIPs) and Copernicus to integrate uncertainty information directly into their datasets and promote tools that help users propagate uncertainties into derived products.
The UNC will begin beta testing in April 2026. NPL invites interested organisations and individual scientific contributors to participate and help shape a convention designed to meet the practical needs of data providers and users across the Earth science community.
If you or your organisation would like to participate in the UNC beta testing, please register your interest via the following form: https://bit.ly/UNC-EoI-Form
18 Mar 2026