Nexus Standards · Index
NS-0 to NS-16 and the NRS catalogue
The Nexus Standards
The 19 Nexus Standards, each with its status, responsible scope and UNI (Unique Nexus Identifier). Responsible scopes are shown by their descriptive labels; GCRI Canada, as Secretariat, maintains the records and publishes the standards.
The process.
Coverage matrixA filled cell indicates that the area lists the standard in the registry. Status terms are those of the registry.
Standards, status and identifiers
Proposed 15 · specified 2 · open 2 · adopted 0, as given in standards/INDEX.md.
Citations between standards.
Fig.Edges represent citations in the texts of the standards; columns group the standards for reading.
The land surface from orbit worldwide
The map is framed on the world as context for the catalogue of the Nexus Standards. Shown at first: true colour (VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE). The layer drawer adds land cover type (IGBP), yearly (MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover, MCD12Q1); enhanced vegetation index, rolling 8 days (MODIS Terra EVI); snow cover (VIIRS NOAA-20 NDSI); and sea ice concentration (GHRSST MUR). NASA products are served through NASA GIBS under NASA's open data policy, with acknowledgement; coastlines, boundaries and place names come from NASA GIBS reference layers (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL) and Natural Earth (public domain). Each layer shows its own observation date; full credits are given under the map.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 1
Earth observation
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
True-colour imagery, land cover, vegetation, snow and sea ice, framed on World.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place.
Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- MODIS land products (vegetation indices, gross primary production, land cover), NASA LP DAAC and LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- GHRSST Level 4 MUR analyses, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; distributed by the NASA Physical Oceanography DAAC (PO.DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
- Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
- © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
- Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
- Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- Past year, daily temperature and sunshine (NASA POWER): These data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) POWER Project funded through the NASA Earth Science/Applied Science Program..
- Optional layers (9 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.
Layers and dates
- True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024
- Enhanced vegetation index, rolling 8 days: MODIS Terra EVI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Snow cover: VIIRS NOAA-20 NDSI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Sea ice concentration: GHRSST MUR, NASA JPL PO.DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
Status definitions
Open: named, not yet drafted. Proposed: drafted and available for voluntary use, pending adoption. Adopted: adopted by the Global Standards Council after last call. Standards that are superseded or withdrawn retain their records.
Implementation status is recorded separately for each implementation.
Precedence among obligations
Mandatory law and executed contracts take precedence over the legal and intellectual property instruments of the implementing institution, which take precedence over NS-0, which takes precedence over the other Nexus Standards, which take precedence over the implementing institution's own internal policies. An implementation shall record a conflict between these levels as a blocking record with a typed reason; it shall not resolve the conflict in code.
Every standard.
Constitution and principles
Status proposed · trust, authorization and assurance
NS-1The UNI and the artifact catalog (grammar v0.2: domain, sector, region and environment segments)
Status proposed · trust, authorization and assurance
NS-2Citation and attribution format for UNIs
Status proposed · trust, authorization and assurance; knowledge, records and learning
NS-3Risk record UNIs (grammar, legacy crosswalk, allocation authority)
Status proposed · trust, authorization and assurance; canonical risk data, records and provenance
NS-3bDataset and product metadata profile (STAC, DCAT, PROV-O)
Status proposed · trust, authorization and assurance; canonical risk data, records and provenance
NS-4Structure and drafting of Nexus Standards and documents (v0.2: clause structure, verbal forms, registered requirements; document front matter)
Status proposed · knowledge, records and learning
NS-5Figure, map and visualization standard (with the UI/UX kit)
Status proposed · earth observation and digital twins; visual composition and workflows
NS-6Surface wiring (API header, panel provenance, passports, OpenAPI)
Status specified · trust, authorization and assurance
NS-7Resolver landing pages, page meta tags, sitemap
Status specified · public, client and partner delivery
NS-8Zenodo publishing workflow with legal gate, DOI write-back, Software Heritage archival
Status open · trust, authorization and assurance
NS-9Contextual UNIs (deployments, instances, programme instances)
Status proposed · trust, authorization and assurance
NS-10Policies and clauses (machine-readable obligations: definition, binding, evaluation and enforcement)
Status proposed · trust, authorization and assurance; integrated posture and executive synthesis
NS-11Verification and monitoring (evidence, attestations, zero-trust conformance observation)
Status proposed · trust, authorization and assurance
NS-12Software, model and AI/ML artifacts (supply chain, model cards, dataset sheets)
Status proposed · software, models and capability lifecycle; trust, authorization and assurance
NS-13Standards development process (open proposals, review, versioning, adoption)
Status proposed · trust, authorization and assurance
NS-14Conformance and crosswalk to external standards
Status proposed · trust, authorization and assurance
NS-15System model binding (identity levels, passports, chronotopes, relationships, risk routes and engines, cell intelligence, agent genomes)
Status proposed · trust, authorization and assurance; canonical risk data, records and provenance
NS-16UNI application profile (context names such as NXS-GRX-WAT-CAN; how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
Status proposed · trust, authorization and assurance; knowledge, records and learning; public, client and partner delivery
NRSNexus Risk Standards: the systemic catalogue (the risk core, the anchor nexus streams, hazard families, method fabrics, functional system class, Universe platform and domain pack profiles, and the AI-native standards infrastructure)
Status open · trust, authorization and assurance; with the proposed technical committees
Questions and answers.
Which standard should be read first?
Why are NS-6 and NS-7 not separate documents?
How should a proposed standard be described in public material?
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The same subject across the Consortium.
Around the Nexus Standards.
Take part in the standards.
Governments, regulators, standards bodies, industry, academia and communities are invited to shape the catalogue ahead of its first official release, targeted for 2030: comment on a draft, propose a change, join a working group or host a field exercise.
Status and use. The Nexus Standards are proposed standards developed through an open process under NS-13 and published for voluntary use; they do not constitute certification, accreditation or regulatory approval, and adoption remains a decision of the Global Standards Council and, in each country, of its National Standards Council. A UNI (Unique Nexus Identifier) identifies an artifact; it does not certify it. Names of standards bodies and their standards belong to their stewards and are used only to identify the documents; no text of an external standard is reproduced here. Nexus Standards is not affiliated with, endorsed by or certified by any standards body named here.
Licences: CC BY 4.0 for standards text, registries, schemas and data; Apache-2.0 for reference code. External standards are cited by name, number and link under their own licences. Third-party data, libraries and fonts keep their own licences: see Third-party notices.