INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND REMOTE SENSING 
Commission VI 
Symposium held in Mainz, FR Germany, 22 - 25 September 1982 
AN TNVESTIGATILON OF AVAILABLE ON-LINE 
DAT BASES TN EHR FI EL DO pr PHOTOGRAMMIE-TR 
AND REMOTE SENSING 
Henk ten Haken 
International Institute for Aerial Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC), Enschede, Netherlands 
ABSTRACT 
In the field of photogrammetry and remote sensing a number of data bases is avail- 
able on-line, either as a special data base for the subject, or as part of a 
multidisciplinary data base. 
An investigation has been made after the degree of coverage of these data bases. 
‚The degree of coverage may be considered from the points of view: range of the 
subject field, sources, geographical coverage and language. 
The results achieved indicate that the investigated data bases do not constitute 
a retrieval system which scientists can fully rely on. 
  
1. Introduction 
In a publication submitted to the XIVth. Congress of the ISP in Hamburg, 1980, 
I discussed data bases in the field of photogrammetry and remote sensing, which 
data bases had been subdivided into the following main groups: 
A. Data bases of direct importance to the field of photogrammetry and remote 
sensing 
B. Data bases in the fields of earth sciences, vegetation, agriculture (being 
subject for which remote sensing finds application) 
C. Multidisciplinary data bases 
D. Data banks containing information on imagery. 
In the present paper the data bases belonging to group A will be considered 
further, to which also will be reckoned those multidisciplinary data bases which 
in part are devoted to the subjects photogrammetry and remote sensing. The in- 
vestigation has been made with reference to the following items: range of the 
subject field, elaborated sources, geographical coverage and language. 
2. Available data bases of importance to photogrammetry and remote sensing 
For the time being four data bases may be considered as belonging to the range 
as mentioned above. 
The way data bases are offered to the user is generally done through so-called 
hosts, i.e. organisations which act as intermediaries between the producers of 
data bases and the final users. As far as it applies, the hosts in question have 
been stated in the descriptions following hereafter. : 
2.1 NASA 
A multidisciplinary on-line data base including the subjects photogrammetry and 
remote sensing. 
Host: ESA-information retrieval service (ESA-IRS). 
A full descirption, as released by the ESA-IRS, is given in Appendix 1. 
2.2 PASCAL 
A multidisciplinary on-line data base including the subjects photogrammetry and 
remote sensirng. 
Bibliographic quotation : 
Haken, H.ten : An investigation of available data bases in the field of photogrammetry 
and remote sensing. In : Int.Archive of Photogrammetry, 24 - VI, pp 82 - 91, Mainz 1982