Evolution of web services in EOSDIS — Search and order metadata registry (ECHO)

During 2005 through 2008, NASA defined and implemented a major evolutionary change in the Earth Observing system Data and Information System (EOSDIS) to modernize its capabilities. This implementation was based on a vision for 2015 developed during 2005. The “EOSDIS 2015 Vision” emphasizes increased end-to-end data system efficiency and operability; increased data usability; improved support for end users; and decreased operations costs. One key feature of the Evolution plan was achieving higher operational maturity (ingest, reconciliation, search and order, performance, error handling) for the NASA's Earth Observing System Clearinghouse (ECHO). The ECHO system is an operational metadata registry through which the scientific community can easily discover and exchange NASA's Earth science data and services. ECHO contains metadata for 2, 726 data collections comprising over 87 million individual data granules and 34 million browse images, consisting of NASA's EOSDIS Data Centers' and the United States Geological Survey's Landsat Project holdings. ECHO stores metadata from a variety of science disciplines and domains, including Climate Variability and Change, Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems, Earth Surface and Interior, Atmospheric Composition, Weather, and Water and Energy Cycle. ECHO provides a platform for the publication, discovery, understanding and access to NASA's Earth Observation resources (data, service and clients). In their native state, these data, service and client resources are not necessarily targeted for use beyond their original mission. However, with the proper interoperability mechanisms, users of these resources can expand their value, by accessing, combining and applying them in unforeseen ways. ECHO provides access to its capabilities through a set of services. These ECHO Applications Program Interfaces (APIs) are based on industry standards for performing web-based computing, specifically web services profile.