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All Carbon Action Items currently under lead of WGCV are under assessment in order to

• align the WGCV work plan adequately
• coordinate with ither CEOS entities
• identify and coordinate with external bodies if needed
• identify dedicated alignment to a specific sub-group if possible
• identify cross-cutting or fundamental items related over the whole WGCV to align with existing WGCV taks (for example: validation metrics) or to implement a cross-cutting task within WGCV and others involved bodies if needed.

Assessment is nearly complete but the consolidation/merging of different input into one work plan is ongoing.

Results: Several action items are fully/partially aligned to ongoing work on sub-group level and to cross-cutting tasks or action items in the WGCV.

Hint: some of action items don't directly translate; some can be combined. An adequate alignment matrix will be provided with the consolidation of the assessment.

The establishment of best practice algorithms and comparison tools is baseline to achieve harmonization, comparability and interoperability of products. Algorithms of specific missions are usually documented in the Algorithm Theoretical Base Document (ATBD). It is common sense in the WGCV to make use of the ATBD to establish/recommend best practice algorithms/protocols for providing a baseline for harmonization and intercomparison of products. The comparison of Level 1 & 2 (and in some cases level 3 -> DEM)? data is usually part of the WGCV agenda. However, this can be performed as "Business as usual" detailing the work plan of WGCV wrt carbon products and ancillary products. Note that part of the work is also included in some sub-groups' work plan (see for example: LPV -> LAI), but must be detailed.?

On the other hand, the Carbon community shall have the opportunity to formulate their requirements wrt Carbon products and ancillary data in terms of gain/threshold/breakthrough uncertainty level.

A combination of this AI with AI 29 & 9 and reorganization of all three AI in a step-wise approach would provide a consistent path to be followed for all three action items:

• Identification of products on different product levels
• Formulation of a consistent requirement set by the carbon community
• Addressing of priorities along impact and available resources
• Inventory of existing protocols and definitions for products, validation, and intercomparisons
• Establishment of a global consistence approach (see also action item 8: global consistent validation approach) for product, validation and inter-comparison
• Concrete consistent work plan with identified priorities

NB: In terms of products and ancillary data including best practice protocols and validation approaches, WGCV provides ongoing work but may currently not cover all products/aspects. (Note that aside LPV some other sub-groups are providing input: SAR for Level 1 SAR products, Terrain Mapping for DEMs, etc....) A certain small amount of products are covered by VCs (Ocean color) but must be coordinated wrt level 1 baseline and best practice protocols, also in coordination with IOOCG.