---
title: "Data & licensing, explained | Nexus Observatory"
description: "Interactive explainer: data & licensing in 3D, chapter by chapter: the value never travels alone, a product inherits every licence it touches…"
url: https://observatory.global/data-products/explainer/
publisher: Nexus Observatory Inc.
updated: 2026-10-28
---

**Instrument** *· calibration* 

**Node** *· envelope, buffer, quality* 

**Site** *· outbox* 

**governed data store** *· inbox, governed data* 

**Consumer** *· product* 

**4.56 °C** GNSS ±1 µs · u ±0.15 flags none · aws-07

**NOAA ISD** *· U.S. Government work* 

**USGS NWIS** *· U.S. Government work* 

**ECCC hydrometric** *· ECCC end-use licence* 

**NEON** *· CC0 1.0* 

**Argo floats** *· CC BY 4.0* 

**AmeriFlux** *· CC BY 4.0* 

**WRI power plants** *· CC BY 4.0* 

**Sensor.Community** *· ODbL 1.0 · research only* 

**INTERMAGNET** *· CC BY-NC 4.0 · research only* 

**PSMSL tide gauges** *· Free with citation · research only* 

**Derived product** *· 2 sources, 1 attribution line* 

**Research** *· open* 

**Commercial API** *· open* 

**Enterprise** *· open* 

**Government** *· open* 

**Open release** *· open* 

**NOAA ISD** 

**ECCC hydrometric** 

**USGS NWIS** 

**Argo floats** 

**P1 · gridded field** *· v1* 

**P2 · index** *· v1* 

**P3 · nowcast** *· v1* 

**P4 · QC report** *· v1* 

**P5 · composite** *· v1* 

**P6 · index of indices** *· v1* 

**API** 

**Map** 

**Export** 

**Alerts** 

**Canada** 

**United States of America** 

**Germany** 

**Japan** 

**Australia** 

**Brazil** 

**refused at the boundary** 

**Sites** 

**Governed products** 

**API** 

**Events** 

**Maps** 

**Export** 

**Open release** 

**Inbound management path** *· none* 

**Alberta** *· 146 stations* 

01

02

03

04

05

06

Intro. Instrument · calibration; Node · envelope, buffer, quality; Site · outbox; governed data store · inbox, governed data; Consumer · product; 4.56 °CGNSS ±1 µs · u ±0.15flags none · aws-07

Data · Explainer

# Grid data, licensed for your use.

Every value leaves the instrument with its unit, time quality, quality flags and provenance, and keeps them all the way to your product. The licence of every source is carried through to every product, corrections flow downstream without deleting history, and residency is fixed by contract.

**Sources in the register**: 30
**Cleared for commercial use**: 19
**Fields in an observation**: 13
**Steps from instrument to product**: 7

**01** Pipeline

**02** Licensing

**03** Corrections

**04** Residency

**05** Exchange

**06** Requests

**01** · Pipeline

## The value never travels alone.

An instrument measures with its identity and calibration. The node wraps the value in an observation envelope with time quality, buffers it when the link drops, measures quality and uncertainty, and publishes through a transactional outbox, delivered at least once. The inbox upstream deduplicates by event id, so a value lands once however often it is sent. Inject a fault and follow the packet.

Fault

1. Measurement with sensor identity and calibration `instrument → node · calibration-record`
2. Wrap in an observation envelope with time quality `node → node · observation`
3. Buffer locally (store-and-forward when the link drops) `node → node · event-envelope`
4. Measure quality and uncertainty, attach quality flags `node → node · quality-flag`
5. Commit with transactional outbox and publish, delivered at least once `node → site · event-envelope`
6. Consumer inbox deduplicates and applies each record once into governed data `site → data-store · observation`
7. Governed product through API, map or export, correction-aware `data-store → api-consumer · product-manifest`

```
{ "observationUni": "obs-1001", "systemUni": "aws-07", "observedProperty": "air_temperature", "phenomenonTime": "2026-10-28T05:14:18Z", "resultTime": "2026-10-28T05:14:18Z", "result": 4.56, "unit": "Cel", "uncertainty": { "u": 0.15, "k": 2 }, "qualityFlags": [], "timeQuality": { "source": "GNSS", "offsetBound": "±1 µs" }, "evidenceRefs": [ "cal-aws-07-r4" ], "schemaVersion": "1.0" }
```

**Delivered to the inbox**: 0
**Applied once**: 0

**02** · Licensing

## A product inherits every licence it touches.

A derived product carries the union of its inputs' obligations and the intersection of their permissions. One non-commercial input closes the commercial tiers; one share-alike database fixes the licence of what is built from it; every attribution travels. Choose the sources a product draws on and see where it may go.

**Attribution lines carried**: 1
**Share-alike**: none
**Non-commercial input**: none
**Tiers open to this product**: 5 of 5 · research, commercial api, enterprise, government, open release

**03** · Corrections

## A correction flows down. History stays.

When a source corrects a value, the dependency graph is walked: every product that used it is marked stale, only those are recomputed, each gets a new version that names what it supersedes, and subscribers are told. Nothing is deleted; the old version stays readable with its correction state. Pick a source to correct.

Correct

1. Upstream correction `source-steward → data-store · correction-notice`
2. Walk dependency graph; mark dependent state stale or disputed `data-store → data-store · correction-notice`
3. Selective recompute `data-store → data-store · evidence-record`
4. New version; notify subscribers, UI and exports `data-store → api-consumer · product-manifest`

**Products marked stale**: –
**Left untouched**: –
**Subscribers notified**: –

**04** · Residency

## Where data lives is a contract term.

The compiler evaluates data rights and locality before it places anything, and it is compute-to-data aware: when rows may not leave a region, the work travels to the data and only the permitted result comes back. Set the region, the requester and the request.

Data region

Requester in

Request

**Decision**: refused at the boundary
**Crosses the boundary**: the request only
**Distance travelled**: 6,420 km each way

**05** · Exchange

## Out by contract. Never in.

Governed products reach people and applications through versioned APIs, events, maps and exports. None of them opens an inbound management path into a site: requests stop at the governed product, and a map paint is bound to its product by a grounding receipt. Open release is one more channel, open only when the licence allows it.

Channel

**Standards**: OGC API Common · OGC SensorThings API · OpenAPI 3.1
**What travels**: versioned product records, each value with its quality and provenance
**Inbound path to the site**: none

**06** · Requests

## Ask for an area and a window.

A request names a property, an area and a time window. The size of the answer follows from the stations inside the area, the window and the reporting interval; each observation comes back with its quality and provenance attached. The stations counted here are real surface weather stations.

Area

Interval

Form

```
GET /v1.1/Observations ?$filter=st_within(FeatureOfInterest/feature, geography'POLYGON((-120 49,-110 49,-110 60,-120 60,-120 49))') and ObservedProperty/name eq 'air_temperature' and phenomenonTime ge 2026-10-27T15:00:00Z and phenomenonTime lt 2026-10-28T05:00:00Z &$select=phenomenonTime,result,resultQuality &$top=2044
```

**Stations in the area**: 146
**Observations returned**: 2,044
**Response size, uncompressed**: 734.7 kB

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