Array Standards

This page collects standards relevant for large-scale array processing. Standards may be both domain independent (such as ISO Array SQL) or domain specific (such as the OGC WCPS geo raster query language). For each standard, its adoption status is provided.

Domain Neutral

• Array SQL (data and processing standard)
  • Full title: ISO 9075 SQL Part 15: Multi-Dimensional Arrays (MDA)
  • Issueing Body: ISO (SC 32 / WG 3)
  • Description: SQL extension with domain-neutral definition and queries on massive multi-dimensional arrays ("datacubes").
  • Adoption Status: DIS ballot started in August 2017
  • Further information:
    • D. Misev, P. Baumann: Homogenizing Data and Metadata Retrieval in Scientific Applications. Proc. ACM CIKM DOLAP, Melbourne, Australia, October 23, 2015, pp. 25 - 34

Earth & Planetary Sciences

• OGC Coverages (data standard)
  • Full title: Coverage Implementation Schema (CIS) [formerly also known as: GMLCOV]
  • Issueing Body: Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
  • Description: service-independent data model for spatio-temporal regular and irregular grids, point clouds, and general meshes. As opposed to ISO 19123 (see below), this is concrete enough to be interoperable and conformance testable down to pixel level.
  • Adoption Status:
    • adopted by OGC
    • under adoption by ISO as 19123-2, DIS ballot to start in August 2017
    • adopted by EU INSPIRE, with slight modifications (re-harmonization with OGC coverage standard under work)
  • Further information:
    • authoritative standards page: http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wcs
    • tutorials and webinars: http://earthserver.eu/webinars
    • P. Baumann, E. Hirschorn, J. Maso, A. Dumitru, V. Merticariu: Taming Twisted Cubes. Proc. ACM SIGMOD Workshop on Managing and Mining Enriched Geo-Spatial Data (GeoRich), San Francisco, USA, June 26 - July 01, 2016
    • P. Baumann: Beyond Rasters: Introducing The New OGC Web Coverage Service 2.0. Proc. ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS, San Jose, USA, November 2-5, 2010
• ISO Coverages (data standard)
  • Full title: OGC Abstract Topic 6 (identical to ISO 19123)
  • Issueing Body: ISO (TC211)
  • Description: abstract, generic data model for spatio-temporal coverages. This forms the conceptual basis for the Coverage Implementation Schema (CIS) under adoption by ISO (See above).
  • Adoption Status:
    • adopted since 2004 as 19123, under revision by ISO to become 19123-1
  • Further information:
    • see ISO
• OGC WCS (access and processing standard)
  • Full title: Web Coverage Service
  • Issueing Body: Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
  • Description: modular Web service for accessing spatio-temporal regular and irregular grids, point clouds, and general meshes
  • Adoption Status:
    • adopted OGC standard since 2012
    • adopted by EU INSPIRE in December 2016
    • planned for adoption by ISO
  • Further information:
    • authoritative standards page: http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wcs
    • tutorials and webinars: http://earthserver.eu/webinars
    • P. Baumann: Beyond Rasters: Introducing The New OGC Web Coverage Service 2.0. Proc. ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS, San Jose, USA, November 2-5, 2010
• OGC WCPS (processing standard)
  • Full title: Web Coverage Processing Service
  • Issueing Body: Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
  • Description: geo raster query language for massive spatio-temporal datacubes over regular or irregular grids
  • Adoption Status:
    • adopted OGC standard since 2009
    • optional part in INSPIRE Coverage Download Services
  • Further information:
    • authoritative standards page: http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wcps
    • tutorials and webinars: http://earthserver.eu/webinars
    • P. Baumann: The OGC Web Coverage Processing Service (WCPS) Standard. Geoinformatica, 14(4)2010, pp 447-479