rasdaman newsletter 11/2017
Datacubes for Big Earth Data
EarthServer´s 2-day workshop “Datacubes for Big Earth Data”, hosted by ESRIN from October 19 – 20 in Frascati / Italy attracted a lot of data users working with large volumes of Earth Science data. Scientists and professionals in research and industry were introduced to the Datacube concept for processing and analysing massive sets of environmental and geospatial data.
The workshop contained four major thematic blocks: Datacube initiatives, Perspectives on benefits for large-scale data providers, Future perspectives, and an interactive feedback round at the end of the workshop. The EarthServer initiative, which pushes the idea of a Datacube Federation, appeared as the most advanced collaborations at the event, both in terms of technological capabilities, live performance, and data volumes offered. Its Datacube concept eases and accelerates the handling of large geospatial data volumes and the exchange between Datacube technology providers, data users and large data organisations.
In its wrap-up, ECMWF concluded:
Efficient trimming and slicing operations on Datacubes enables on-demand and analysis-ready access to n-dimensional data along any axes. This feature is an asset in diverse fields of applications, i.e. disaster mitigation, monitoring services, Oil-, Gas- and Mining Applications, Business and Science Applications, etc.)
Speeding and easing data access is one of the most convincing arguments for using Datacubes but there are many more advantages:
- the ability to compare different data,
- saving local disc space,
- more time for exploration and science,
- better opportunities to share data,
- providing different data typs organized in a homogeneous and standardized way,
- user access from different domains,
- cross-cutting activities between sciences
Data provider´s benefit is:
- sharing the knowledge how to organize data internally, and the best practise to implement it,
- data sharing,
- helping non-experts to make use of complex Earth Science Data,
- accessing and processing data and data service models dynamically and flexible,
- Standardization of different tools.
Advantages for Technology providers:
- processing additional data dimensions (time, elevation, etc.),
- optimizing hardware vendor´s platforms for data processing
Event link: Datacubes for Big Earth Data Workshop