Data are publically available after the expiration of the data rights of the principle investigator.
A completed data set is one that has acquired either 70 percent or more of its allocated exposure time as good science time, or one in which no further observations will be obtained. The data processing centers at GSFC and MPE have sole responsibility for determining when a data set is to be made available to the public. Another important aspect to the question of data availability is the physical transfer of data to the public archive. The movement of German and UK data processed at MPE is more complicated. This is a longer process, which means that there can be a delay in access to public German and UK data from the US archive.