*Year-End Information Quality Report Format*

I. Cover Sheet: Requests for Correction Received FY 2003

Department Name: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Period Covered: October 1, 2002 to September 30, 2003

Agency Name Number of Requests Received Number Designated as Influential

NASA 1 0

**Total 1 Total 0**

> II\. Template:

-   **Agency Receiving Correction Request:** National Aeronautics and
    Space Administration

-   **Requestor:** The request for correction was submitted by
    Francis C. P. Knize, who listed his occupation as "producer", but
    did not list an organizational affiliation. Mr. Knize indicated that
    he was submitting the request on behalf of Mr. Keith Laney,
    "independent researcher and \[NASA\] Ames Research Center
    consultant. At the end of the request for correction, Mr. Knize also
    listed "Richard Hoagland, science writer, author, science
    consultant; the Enterprise Mission, a Space Research organization;
    SETI scientists from about the globe; and 72 percent of the American
    population" as parties interested in the outcome of the request for
    correction.

 

-   **Date Received:** The request for correction was received via
    e-mail on October 31, 2002, and logged by the Information Quality
    officer on that date.

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-   **Summary of Request:** The request questions the validity of an
    image downloaded from the Arizona State University (ASU) Thermal
    Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) web site. The request indicates
    that a visit to the THEMIS web site on August 26, 2002 produced a
    different image than was available from that site on July 25, 2002.
    The petitioner indicates that the image served from the THEMIS site
    was somehow altered between July 25 and August 26, 2002.

Mr. Knize included in his petition an e-mail exchange from Mr. Laney,
which described the apparent discrepancy in data on two occasions: "I
went back to the THEMIS site on August 26th. I found that the image now
there is very different from the one I downloaded on July 25th... this
image was much \"prettier.\"... The Official image at the THEMIS site
\[as discovered August 26\] is in fact a prettied up, heavily
destreaked, and warp registered later version of the image I received
\[on July 25\]. This is extremely important, because my image \[from
July 25\] has no hints of destreaking or warp registration. Both of
these are irreversible processes. There is no way I could have made my
image from the version now at the THEMIS website... I do know this,
somehow I obtained an unaltered tiff image with a different header
identifier which produces superior IR multispectrals over and beyond the
presently displayed and original July 24^th^ \[sic\] image release."

The image that is the subject of this information correction request was
provided on the THEMIS web site, managed by ASU under the auspices of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. THEMIS maps the mineralogy and
morphology of Mars using multispectral imaging in the visible and
thermal infrared. Six months after THEMIS data are taken, formatted data
are delivered to the Planetary Data System (PDS) for archiving at
three-month intervals. The PDS requires that scientific archives be
validated for both scientific integrity and compliance with PDS
standards. Validation is conducted by a combination of mission and PDS
personnel, and involves a formal PDS peer review. Data that have been
archived are then available to the research and educational communities
and members of the public as calibrated data from which analysis can be
made. The time frame for the release of calibrated THEMIS data to the
public is approximately six to nine months after the data are captured.

Prior to the release of the calibrated data to the public, THEMIS makes
available some "interesting" images via its web site as an educational
and public outreach activity (i.e., "image-of-the day"). These images
generally have not been calibrated and are not required to be of
sufficient quality for scientific analysis. The image that is the
subject of this information correction request was provided on the
THEMIS web site as a public service in the manner described above. While
the source data for the posted image were calibrated and geometrically
projected in a preliminary fashion, this was not done under the formal
validation procedure for PDS release, and the image is not intended for
quantitative scientific analysis.

-   **Description of Requested Correction:** Mr. Knize requested NASA to
    set up a peer review panel to determine why the data provided on
    THEMIS does not seem transparent, and also why the process and mode
    for dissemination is not transparent. He specified that the panel
    "must then analyze how the elements of Mr. Laney\'s frame relates to
    the original as posted at the NASA site... \[to\] properly
    \[determine\] how data was received by Mr. Laney, and disseminated
    by NASA." He elaborates as follows: "If we as a combined group of
    affected interests had to explain where we would like to see a
    correction in data take place, it would be in the correction to
    establish transparency of data, in other words that data would
    remain the same from the same NASA source for independent
    researchers who depend on consistency\... A correction will occur
    when data is consistent, Mr. Laney\'s data for image frame was
    skewed when received. Mr. Laney\'s data contained a certain
    \"blocking phenomenon\" which appears not to be a result of
    photographic artifacting and pixilation, but rather to exhibit
    visual elements that are real. The aforementioned attributes were
    not contained in the image later showing at the same THEMIS source,
    which shows an inconsistency and unwarranted degradation in the
    official version now posted of the frame in question at the official
    NASA Internet site."

-   **Influential:** \_\_\_\_Yes \_\_X\_\_ No \_\_\_\_ Undetermined

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-   **First Agency Response:** \_\_\_\_ in progress \_\_X\_\_ completed

NASA's response to this request for information correction was completed
and transmitted on December 31, 2002.

-   **Resolution:** NASA's Information Quality Officer conducted
    extensive reviews with individuals associated with THEMIS at both
    ASU and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, including the THEMIS
    Principal Investigator at ASU. All parties indicated that the image
    on the THEMIS web site had not been altered during the time period
    mentioned in the petitioner's request for correction.

> NASA provided the following as part of the official response to the
> petitioner:
>
> "Review and Analysis
>
> NASA inquired, and THEMIS confirmed, that the image in question was
> presented on the web site on July 24th, 2002, and was not altered,
> removed, replaced, or otherwise touched between July 24th and August
> 26th, 2002.

The calibrated data related to this image are scheduled for archiving to
the PDS in January 2003. The data that will be available to the public
after January 2003 are the official source for analysis, and will have
been subject to the validation processes described above.

> NASA's Decision
>
> NASA's review has led to the decision that the image is as posted, so
> no correction is required. NASA could find no alteration of the
> original image as posted on the THEMIS web site. Validated archival
> data suitable for scientific analysis will be released to the public
> on schedule."

NASA provided this response directly to the petitioner, and did not
address the request as part of a response to comment, during ongoing
adjudication, or through any other mechanism.

-   **Appeal Request:** \_\_X\_\_ none \_\_\_\_ in progress \_\_\_\_
    completed

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-   **Summary of Request for Reconsideration**: N/A

-   **Type of Appeal Process Used:** N/A

-   **Appeal Resolution:** N/A