Web and Grid services for training in Earth observation

Remote sensing instruments are producing daily huge quantities of data about Earth surface. The data processing and storing can be done nowadays only using wide-area distributed systems. The management of data distribution and fast processing is still an issue despite the increased availability of computing, storage and access facilities to supercomputing and data centers. The grid architectures are responding partially to the needs of remote sensing community and this fact has been recognized in the latest years. While intensive research activities in the direction of building grid-based platforms for remote sensing processing have been registered recently, the training activities are lagging behind. We discuss in this paper the special requirements of a grid-based platform for training and high education in Earth observation and the technical solutions that have been proposed to overcome the problems of distributed data management. Moreover, a case study for training in archaeology using remote sensing data is described and discussed.