Serving spatio-temporal grids: How standards help

The global Earth Science Systems (ESS) cooperation requires both flexible and interoperable Web Service support built on large varieties of Earth Observation archives. Given the complexity and dynamics of each observation and the large number of disciplines involved, Open GIS Consortium (OGC) proposed a modular standardization approach to facilitate ESS data retrieval and analytics. Its latest Web Coverage Service (WCS) 2.0 standard follows the approach and presents as an entry point to build ESS information exchange blocks for the improvement of global Earth Science Systems cooperation in the coming Big Data Era