So the user can decide whether he wants to order a
product or not. Ordering can also be performed online.
Data transfer via network is only possible for selected
datasets, as the actual available (and payable)
bandwidth does not allow the transmission of high
resolution data products with 100 Mbyte and more each.
ISIS offers additional user support by an Infoboard with
text information, software tools, and a Thesaurus
Navigator.
ISIS will also be the technological backbone of a
commercial spin off. The newly founded German
company Euromap, a GAF daugther, holding the
distribution rights for Indian high resolution satellite
images over Europe, will use an ISIS derivate as
commercial distribution system.
3. EUROPEAN APPROACHES - CEO
The situation in the Earth observation ground segment in
Europe is very diverse and inhomogenious. It is based
mainly on investments made by national space agencies,
ESA and Eumetsat. However, by the end of the century
there will be a significant increase in the number of Earth
observation satellites. This will result in Terabytes of data
a week. These data have to be made available and
transformed into information of use to policy makers,
industrialists and scientists.
If one extrapolates the ,information pollution" on the
Internet on the one hand and the very inhomogenious
activities in terms of the Earth observation ground
segment and user services in Europe on the other to the
comming years then one discovers that some action was
necessary. To improve the situation the European
Commission has decided together with its member
states to establish the CEO programme (EC-JRC,
19952).
CEO is thought to be a ,one stop shopping mall" for
Earth observation related information and services. To
further elaborate this example the CEO programme
would deliver the shops and the infrastructure of the mall
whereas service providers would move in and determine
the offers and services.
The goals of CEO as stated in the concept papers (EC-
JRC, 1995a) are to stimulate user oriented services
building on existing facilities and projects by
e encouraging better communication between
individual users and between user communities
e stimulating the creation of high level products
contributing to improved data standardisation and
quality assurance
e promoting the design and operation of decentralised
data archives, databases and data delivery services
for Earth observation data and products and relevant
non space data
e improving the visibility of Earth observation services
and expertise
The CEO programme (see fig. 4) comprises four inter-
related components (EC-JRC, 1995b):
516
e Application Support: stimulates the production of
information services from Earth observation data, in
response to customers' needs, thereby drawing more
customers into the system.
e User Support: comprises actions and measures
designed to help CEO participants to use Earth
observation data to meet their requirements.
e Enabling services: initiates actions and measures to
provide software tools and systems to increase the
exchange and accessibility of meta-data and
information about Earth observation
e Monitoring and Coordination Services manages,
monitors and develops the CEO programme and
services
User Support
SERVICE
PROVIDERS
CUSTOMERS
Fig. 3: The CEO Programme
The third component of CEO, the Enabling Services, will
concentrate on developing toolkits (EC-JRC, 1995c) for
standard services as „Yellow Pages“, higher level
subscription services, advertising and dictionaries (see
fig. 4). As ISIS, the Enabling Services will also build on
the experience of CINTEX and include the Catalogue
interoperability protocol. A catalogue interoperability
gateway toolkit will also be developed.
SUPPLY
-.
SERVICE
PROVIDERS
DEMAND ENABLE
i COMMON PROTOCOL *
CUSTOMERS
Fig. 4. CEO Enabling Services
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B4. Vienna 1996
