The Working Group on Information Systems and Services

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The Working Group on Information Systems and
Services (WGISS) Chairs Report to the 16th CEOS
Plenary
Frascati, Italy November 2002
Terry Fisher Canada Centre for Remote
Sensing Terry.Fisher_at_nrcan.gc.ca
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WGISS Report to CEOS PlenaryPresentation Overview

• WGISS Summary
• WGISS Test Environment
• GRID Technology Pilots
• WGISS Reorganization
• Updated WGISS 5 Year Plan

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WGISS Overview

• The Role of Information Systems Services
• An essential element to the success of Earth
  observation programmes
• users need to be able find and access products
  and services on a global basis
• harmonised systems are essential to allow users
  to easily and efficiently utilise products
  globally
• coordinated technical development is required if
  this is to be achieved
• WGISS
• The Working Group on Information Systems and
  Services (WGISS) is there to address these issues
• facilitates EO data and information management
  and services for users and data providers on a
  global, regional and local basis.

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Current Foci

• User Driven Development
• Following encouragement by CEOS Plenary WGISS has
  re-oriented itself to work with user
  organisations in the development of tools,
  techniques and recommendations
• This it has done through the development of the
  Test Environment
• Spatial Information World
• WGISS needs to be a partner in the wider spatial
  information world, which is rapidly developing
  information technology.
• A specific focus has been WGISSs relationship
  with the Open GIS consortium (OGC) where there
  has been sharing of ideas and joint particpation
  in meetings and the development of an Earth
  Observation Special Interest Group
• Commercial development
• WGISS has continued to liaise with the EO
  commercial sector on the development and
  operation of information systems and services.
• Commercial organisations continue to attend
  WGISS, Sub-Group and associated Workshops
• Standards
• WGISS needs to influence the real and de facto
  standards that are driving the spatial
  information and commercial developments
• Continued links are maintained with key standards
  organisations (ISO, CCSDS, OGC...)

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WGISS Achievements

• Resource discovery and access
• Archive e.g. Purge alert in place archive
  interchange format completed and has been
  adopted by ESAs CRYOSAT Program
• Discovery e.g. The International Directory
  Network (IDN) has been operational for 10
  years and has more than 11,000 data set
  descriptions, with 30,000 user sessions /
  month
• Search e.g. CEOS Interoperable Catalog System
  provides access to over 1700 catalogues
• Access e.g. Established a virtual CEOSnet, with
  regular network performance monitoring
• Resource generation, evaluation and utilisation
• Data sets e.g. Global data sets supported
• Data formats e.g. Data format guidelines issued
• Data rescue e.g. African data sets rescued by
  USGS at WGISS instigation for developing
  countries

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WGISS Outreach

• Demonstration at World Summit on Sustainable
  Development in Johannesburg
• GISD Portal is operational at http//wgiss.ceos.o
  rg/gisd/
• 9000 Leaflets distributed at WSSD
• 25000 Business Cards distributed at WSSD
• 70 people attended EO/GEO Workshop at JRC, Ispra
• WGISS Paper at ISPRS Commission 2 Symposium in
  Xian, China
• EO SIG at the OpenGis Consortium
• Distribution of the CEOS CDROM
• 500 copies of revised WGISS brochure distibuted
  at various conferences and meetings

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CEOS International Directory Network (IDN)

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Demonstration at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD)

• GISD Demo Team established at the May 2002 WGISS
  Subgroups meeting to produce a demonstration to
  be presented at the World Summit on Sustainable
  Development Conference in Johannesburg on Aug
  26-Sept 5, 2002
• The goal was to garner publicity for the CEOS
  WGISS tools and services
• Demonstration was patterned after the GOFC demo
  presented at the CEOS Plenary meeting in Kyoto in
  Nov 2001

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Who Participated ?
Demonstration at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD)

• NASA Yonsook Enloe, Allan Doyle, Ken McDonald,
  Lola Olsen
• ESA Christophe Caspar, Ivan Petiteville
• CCRS Tom Kralidis, Terry Fisher
• USGS Jeff Eidenshink
• NASDA Shinichi Sobue, Ben Burford,
• NOAA Chris Elvidge, Howard Diamond

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Demonstration at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD)

• Demo portal http//wgiss.ceos.org/gisd - will
  be supported until September 2004
• Demo shows some WGISS capabilities for discovery,
  search, and data access and visualization.
• Demo shown at multiple WSSD booths
• CEOS Booth
• NOAA
• NASDA
• NOAA printed and distributed the demo 1 page
  flyer to the NOAA, CEOS, GISD booths
• NASDA also printed 1 page flyer to be
  distributed at the Japan booth
• Positive comments from ESA and NOAA
  representatives about the WGISS GISD Demo
• GISD Demo will be shown as a side event demo at
  the Plenary meeting

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The WGISS Year

• WGISS Meetings
• WGISS 13 hosted by NASDA at Tokyo (February 2002)
• WGISS 14 hosted by NOAA in Honolulu (September
  2002)
• Sub-Group Meetings
• Hosted by ESA at Frascati, Italy April 2002
• Hosted by NASA at Alexandria, Virginia, September
  2002
• Associated Workshops
• EOGEO hosted by the EC at Ispra, Italy, May 2002
• Presentations / Promotion
• ISPRS Commission II Symposium in China in August
  2002
• Demonstration at WSSD meeting in Johannesburg
  Aug/Sep 2002

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Test Environment

• WGISS has developed a new Test Environment
  concept which allows WGISSs products to be
  tested and used in partnership with user
  application projects.
• This was presented to, and approved by Plenary
  14 in Rio.
• Benefits to Users (e.g. IGOS-P related)
• Improved access to data/information through
  improved systems and services
• Access to technical expertise
• Facilitate potential information systems
  prototypes
• Benefits to CEOS
• Increased and more effective use of space agency
  data and services
• Benchmark relevance of WGISS activities
• Provide a mechanism for WGISS to work with users
  on real projects
• Demonstrate, promote and verify WGISS tools and
  services within real applications.
• Provide feedback to guide further developments

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Overview
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WGISS Test FacilityGlobal Observation of Forest
Cover(WTF/GOFC)

• Achievements
• Conducted successful demonstration at Kyoto
  Plenary
• Kyoto Plenary demonstration used as the basis of
  the successful WSSD demonstration
• Identified 5 common interfaces to be supported by
  CEOS agencies
• Pathfinder for WGISS Test Facility Concept
• Sparked interest in additional WTFs

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WTF/GOFC

• Achievements continued
• Prepared the following preoperational or
  operational systems supporting common interfaces
• NASA EDG inventory system - already operational
• NASA International Directory Network
• ESA's operational fire system - contains ATSR hot
  spot data and land cover info over SE Asia
• NASDA/MAFF( Ministry of Fisheries and Forestry of
  Japan) pre-operational early disaster warning
  system (forest fire detection using AVHRR and
  DMSP-OLS to detect hot spots)
• JERS-SAR Mosaic server - planned to be
  operational in Jan 2003
• Digital Asia Network by NASDA, GISTDA, AIT and
  other partners in Asia - contains GIS data
  combined with remote sensed data for areas over
  Asia
• WTF/GOFC completed

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WGISS Test FacilityCoordinated Enhanced
Observing Period(WTF/CEOP)

• Objective
• Support the development and implementation of the
  IGOS Water Cycle Theme
• Provide information system and service input into
  the data handling (EO and in situ) issues related
  to numerical models and data analysis
• Aid the development of the Coordinated Enhanced
  Observing Period (CEOP) data sets

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WGISS Test FacilityCoordinated Enhanced
Observing Period(WTF/CEOP)

• Status
• WGISS agreed to accept CEOP as new WTF
• The CEOP Satellite Working Group will meet in
  Tokyo in October to develop short term plan
• NASDA NASA will start the work by Jan 2003
• Satellite data MODIS, AQUA, TRMM (and ADEOS-II)
• IT Prototyping to be carried out
• 4D Integrated products.
• Visualization tools.
• Data mining tools.

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WTF CEOP Summary
Space Agency NASDA NASA (EUMETSAT)
Satellite Data Subsetting Distribution
Water Cycle Theme
Support
Catalogue DB Data server
CEOP data Visualization Data mining
CEOP Satellite Data Integration
Center (CSDIC) Univ. of Tokyo, GLDAS
NASDA(Lead) NASA
WTF CEOP
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WTF Core Sites (WGCV)

• Phase I Goals
• Provide a web-based interface for the access to
  data collected over CEOS Core Sites
• Establish a prototype mechanism for access to
  distributed remote
• sensing in-situ data holdings validation
  test databases.
• Represent sites data associated with the EOS
  Core Sites VALERI
• Begin with the GOFC/GOLD/TCO/IVOS priority sites
  and data
• Realize international cost-sharing opportunities
• Build on infrastructure of existing scientific
  networks validation
• sites

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WTF Core Sites (WGCV) Phase 1 Sites

• Barton Bendish, UK
• Mongu, Zambia
• Harvard Forest, MA, USA
• BOREAS Northern Study Area, Canada
• Uardry, Australia

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WTF Core Sites (WGCV) Distribution of Sites
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WTF Core Sites (WGCV) Phase I Objectives

• Provide for a user to order MODIS and Landsat
  data from a single WWW baseline interface
• Provide for a user to order field data sets,
  archived at the Oak Ridge DAAC facility, from the
  baseline interface (Exact data sets determined by
  user contribution)
• Provide for a user to order and download MODIS
  subsets re-projected into UTM coordinates (those
  of Landsat) from the baseline interface

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WTF Core Sites (WGCV) Phase I Objectives

• Provide for a user to order and download MODIS
  subsets reformatted into GeoTIFF format from the
  baseline interface
• Provide for a user to order and download ETM
  images, archived in Fast 7 or HDF format,
  reformatted as GeoTIFF images from the baseline
  interface (will involve creation of a QA layer,
  provided by native formats, into raster format)
•  
• Provide for a user to easily identify all
  archived MODIS and Landsat images within a
  user-specified time window from the baseline
  interface
• SPOT recently added..USGS offer to host

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WTF Core Sites (WGCV) Phase I Plan

• Period October 2002 March 2003
• Agencies ESA, USGS, NASA, NASDA
• Satellite Data MODIS, Landsat ETM, SPOT HRV
  Vegetation
• Objectives
• Establish access prototype for distributed EO
  in-situ data holdings validation test
  databases.
• Represent sites data associated with the EOS
  Core Sites VALERI (Barton Bendish, UK, Mongu,
  Zambia, Harvard Forest, MA,
• USA, BOREAS Northern Study Area, Canada, Uardry,
  Australia)
• Order MODIS Landsat data from a single
  interface
• Order field data sets archived from Oak Ridge
  DAAC facility
• Order/download MODIS subsets re-projected into
  UTM coordinates
• and reformatted into GeoTIFF
• Order/download ETM images, archived in Fast 7 or
  HDF format,
• reformatted as GeoTIFF images
• Easily identify all archived MODIS and Landsat
  images

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WTF Core Sites (WGCV) Data Compilation
SATELLITE DATA from various CEOS Member
sensors, subsetted over the site and WWW
accessible.
Ancillary/GIS Layers such as - elevation
- land cover - reference layer (with
political boundaries, airports, water
bodies) Scientific Networks such as AERONET
and FLUXNET data ILTERs
Field and airborne data WWW accessible
Graphic courtesy of the BigFoot program
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WTF Data Distribution
Investigator
WGISS Test Facility
MODIS Subsets, ETM, ASTER (EDC DAAC) SeaWiFS
Subsets (GSFC) MAVT (MERIS,AATSR) IVOS Data
Subsetting, Reprojection, Formatting, QC Data
Catalog Limited Storage Data Tools
Science
In Situ Data (PIs ORNL)
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WTF/Oceans
observation data

• Objective
• 1. Support the development and
  implementation of the IGOS Ocean Theme
• 2. Retrieval visualization of observation
  data (in-situ, remote sensing) and model output
  data (may use Web Mapping techniques).
• 3. On-line selection of ocean model fed with
  data retrieved and remote execution of the model
  (may use GRID technology).
• Status
• Unable to develop a Work Plan that suited both
  the Science Community and WGISS
• WGISS decided to proceed with a small pilot
  activity focused on oil slicks

model output
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WGISS GRID Pilot Projects

• Following approval at Plenary 15 in Kyoto
• WGISS sponsored a 2-day GRID Workshop at ESRIN in
  April 2002
• Developed 4 application pilot projects
• What is GRID?
• Basic middleware services for seamless
  distributed computing and data management
• IBM has stated, GRID is the next Internet
• Why GRID?
• To authenticate users and providers of data
• To improve performance of data reception and
  delivery of data
• To provide a scalable infrastructure for the
  management of distributed storage resources and
  data
• Offers potential solutions to a number of agency
  problems

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WGISS GRID Pilot Projects Work Plan (Nov 02
Oct 03)

• Install GRID Software
• Execute the following application pilot projects
  
• USGS Data Delivery
• NOAA Operational Model Archive and Distribution
  System (NOMADS)
• ESA Data Integration and Web Portal
• NASA GSFC Advanced Data Grid

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Organisational Issues

• WGISS Survey
• Changes to WGISS structure
• Nominations for new WGISS Vice Chair
• Need to replace John Faundeen (USGS, USA) when he
  assumes position as WGISS Chair in November 2003

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WGISS Survey

• Conducted an informal survey on the value of
  WGISS to the CEOS agencies
• High degree of satisfication with WGISS
  activities
• Need to better advertise activities
• Better linkage with Plenary priorities
• Better linkage with other CEOS WGs
• Revised meeting structure to reduce travel costs

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WGISS ReorganizationRationale

• Reflect/reinforce WGISS focus on working with
  applications
• Distinction between Access Data Subgroups was
  becoming blurred
• Final reports of Network, Access and Data SGs
  included as part of the WGISS Plenary
  documentation package

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New Structure
Current Tasks Developing Countries CD-ROM CEOS
Information Infrastructure WGISS Test Environment
WGISS
Technology and Services Subgroup
Projects and Applications Subgroup
Current Tasks International Directory
Network CEOS Interoperable Catalog System Data
Services Networks Archive EOGEO Workshop GRID
Current Tasks Global Datasets Global Mapping
Book WTF CEOP WTF Core Sites (WGCV)
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Subgroup Leaders

• Technology Services Subgroup
• Chair Wyn Cudlip BNSC/QinetiQ
• Vice-Chair Paul Kopp CNES
• Projects and Applications Subgroup
• Chair Ivan Petiteville ESA
• Vice-Chair Osamu Ochiai NASDA
• Subgroup Chairs serve 2 year term

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Task Team Leaders

• WGISS Level
• CDROM J.P. Antikidis (CNES)
• CEOS Information Infrastructure Jeff Smith
  (NASA)
• WGISS Test Environment Mick Wilson (UNEP)
• Technology Services Subgroup
• IDN Lola
  Olsen (NASA)
• CEOS ICS Jolyon
  Martin (ESA)
• Data Services Bernhard Buckl
  (DLR)
• Networks Jeff Smith
  (NASA)
• Archive John
  Faundeen (USGS)
• GRID Yonsook
  Enloe (NASA)
• Projects and Applications Subgroup
• Global Datasets Lorant Czaran
  (UN)
• EOGEO Clive Best
  (EC/JRC)
• Global Mapping Book Mike Botts (UAH)
• WTF CEOP Osamu Ochiai
  (NASDA)
• WTF Core Sites (WGCV) John Faundeen (USGS)

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WGISS Plans for 2002/3

• WGISS-15 and joint Sub-Group meetings will be
  hosted by CNES in May 2003 in Toulouse, France
• WGISS-16 and joint Sub-Group meetings will be
  held in Thailand co-hosted by GISTDA and NASDA
• EO/GEO will be held in conjunction with ISPRS in
  the UK in June 2003
• Continue operational Tasks as described above
• Execute Grid Pilot Projects
• Initiate First Phase of WTF CEOP and WTF Core
  Sites (WGCV)
• Collaboration with the WGEdu on the CEOS CRDOM
  project

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WGISS Liaison

• Open GIS Consortium Allan Doyle (NASA)
• CCSDS Wyn Cudlip (BNSC/ QinetiQ)
• ISPRS Liping Di (NASA)
• ISO TC211 Lorant Czaran
  (UNEP)
• Climate Meteorology Howard Diamond (NOAA)
• Global Map Project Shinichi Sobue (NASDA)

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Plenary Recommendations and Actions

• Approve
• WGISS focus on Test Facilities, in particular WTF
  Core Sites (WGCV) and Coordinated Enhanced
  Observing Period for 2003
• WGISS Plan for Grid Pilot Projects
• WGISS Reorganization as presented here and
  reflected in the revised WGISS 5 Year Plan
  submitted to this Plenary
• Nominate
• Plenary agencies are invited to send the WGISS
  Chair nominations for the next WGISS Vice Chair
  before March 31, 2003