GEOSS From Orbit, A Sensor Web Approach

The Committee of Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) acting as the space arm of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) will be required to inform the architecture and design of the Global Earth Observing System of System (GEOSS). Current architectural and design activities within CEOS that will direct GEOSS include but are not limited to Virtual Constellations, the Sensor Web, and Wide Area Grids (WAG). Currently many of these activities are being explored in relative isolation within the CEOS Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS). If CEOS is to present a consolidated set of complimentary recommendations, it will be required that at least one of these activities be willing to expand the barriers of the field and look for ways to include all these efforts. Current views in the Sensor Web activities explore a service oriented approach as a best practice informed by a set of standard interface recommendations [1, 2, 3]. If the view of the Sensor Web is expanded beyond these specific technological and architectural constraints and embraces the Sensor Web as a concept, it is possible for the lessons and techniques in each of these other activities to be integrated into this single view.