Data and information architectures for large-scale distributed data intensive information systems

The Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is perhaps one of the most important examples of large-scale, geographically distributed, and data intensive systems. The paper presents various facets of a data and information architecture for EOSDIS. EOS data is organized by means of an object-oriented schema, while EOS knowledge is organized through multiple domain-specific thesauri, complemented by domain knowledge and rules. The information holdings are organized into the source data archives, a data warehouse which provides an integrated view of the information holdings, and information marts which generate value-added information products for specialized user communities. Finally a federated client-server architecture is proposed to allow non-EOSDIS systems to become members of the EOSDIS community, allowing them to access EOSDIS holdings, and sharing their own data with EOSDIS.