hide
Free keywords:
Knowledge Networking; e-Science
Abstract:
Earth system science (ESS) research is generally very data intense.
To enable detailed discovery and transparent access of the data stored
in heterogeneous and organisationally separated data centres common
data and metadata community interfaces are needed. This paper describes
the development of a coherent data discovery and data access
infrastructure for the ESS community in Germany. To comprehensively
and consistently describe the characteristics of geographic data,
required for their discovery (discovery metadata) and for their usage
(use metadata) the ISO standard 19115 is adopted. Webservice technology
is used to hide the details of heterogeneous data access mechanisms
and preprocessing implementations. The commitment to international
standards and the modular character of the approach facilitates the
expandability of the infrastructure as well as the interoperability with
international partners and other communities.
