OGC simplifies EO data access and analysis through novel, standards-based technique

As part of the Earth Observation Applications Pilot, OGC Members have matured an architecture that allows software developers to easily package and share their applications. Similar to a smartphone app-store, this new principle allows application developers and application consumers to select and use the best tool for any given data challenge. Using this method, the cloud supports the necessary scaling on the infrastructure side, while OGC Standards ensure that all components interact seamlessly. The findings of the Pilot are summarized in the OGC Earth Observation Applications Pilot: Summary Engineering Report, while the participants’ experiences as either application developers or platform providers are documented across several other Engineering Reports, available here.

The Pilot, conducted between December 2019 and September 2020, has developed an architecture and methods that enable the simple sharing of data processing applications between scientists, scientific communities, and beyond - a boon to collaboration, repeatability, accountability, and accessibility.

With the two Pilot Sponsors, ESA and NRCan, working hand-in-hand, the pilot successfully tested application deployment and execution on several commercial and governmental cloud platforms. This cross platform compatibility means that the dream of ‘an app store for big data processing applications’ is quickly becoming a reality.