Implementing next-generation national Earth Observation data infrastructure to integrate distributed big Earth Observation data

Abstract

Earth observation (EO) data are remote sensing image data obtained by air-borne or space-borne sensors, which has the characters of distribution and heterogeneity. Because these data are owned by different space agencies. With Petabyte-scale data volumes of Earth Observation (EO) obtained, the EO data has been one of the most important part of big data. The characters of distribution and heterogeneity of big EO data storage and processing systems owned by different space agencies brings challenges to integrate and use these data. To meet the big EO data challenges, the new generation Spatial data infrastructure is needed to provide the solution and implementation technique to big EO data storage, access, process and analysis. The concept and architecture of Next-generation national EO Spatial Data Infrastructure (EO-SDI) is proposed in the paper. Key techniques are introduced to solve the complexity of distributed and heterogeneous EO data integration and on-demand processing. An interoperable national EO data system of systems is developed to integrate distributed EO archives of eight EO data centers.