Think global, cube local: an Earth Observation Data Cube’s contribution to the Digital Earth vision

ABSTRACT

The technological landscape for managing big Earth observation (EO) data ranges from global solutions on large cloud infrastructures with web-based access to self-hosted implementations. EO data cubes are a leading technology for facilitating big EO data analysis and can be deployed on different spatial scales: local, national, regional, or global. Several EO data cubes with a geographic focus (“local EO data cubes”) have been implemented. However, their alignment with the Digital Earth (DE) vision and the benefits and trade-offs in creating and maintaining them ought to be further examined. We investigate local EO data cubes from five perspectives (science, business and industry, government and policy, education, communities and citizens) and illustrate four examples covering three continents at different geographic scales (Swiss Data Cube, semantic EO data cube for Austria, DE Africa, Virginia Data Cube). A local EO data cube can benefit many stakeholders and players but requires several technical developments. These developments include enabling local EO data cubes based on public, global, and cloud-native EO data streaming and interoperability between local EO data cubes. We argue that blurring the dichotomy between global and local aligns with the DE vision to access the world’s knowledge and explore information about the planet.

KEYWORDS:

• Earth Observation data cube
• Digital Earth
• interoperability
• workflows
• open data cube

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) for their financial and Institutional support regarding the development of the Swiss Data Cube, the University of Geneva for financing the IT infrastructure. Results of this publication are partly relying on the Swiss Data Cube (http://www.swissdatacube.org), operated and maintained by UNEP/GRID-Geneva, the University of Geneva, the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL.

The research on the Austrian Sen2Cube.at semantic EO data cube was funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) under the Austrian Space Application Programme (ASAP) within the projects Sen2Cube.at (project no.:866016), SemantiX (project no.: 878939) and SIMS (project no.: 885365).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Martin Sudmanns

Martin Sudmanns, Dr., is postdoctoral researcher at the Paris Lodron University Salzburg, Department of Geoinformatics, Austria, and co-head of the research area EO Analytics. His research focuses on Geoinformatics, computer-based representation of natural phenomena in spatial data models, spatio-temporal Earth observation analysis in the context of data cubes and big EO data.

Hannah Augustin

Hannah Augustin, MSc, is a PhD researcher in Earth observation (EO) Analytics at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Department of Geoinformatics, Austria with a research focus on semantic EO data cubes, and automated and transferable processes for generating EO-informed indicators from big optical EO imagery.

Brian Killough

Brian Killough, Dr., has 35 years of NASA experience and leads the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS) Systems Engineering Office. The SEO supports the international CEOS organization coordinating satellite earth observation data for global benefit. Dr. Killough has played a significant role in the evolution of the Open Data Cube initiative and the development of regional data cubes in Africa, the Americas and the Pacific Islands. Dr. Killough has authored over 20 technical papers and received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 2016 and the 2021 GEO Individual Excellence Award.

Gregory Giuliani

Gregory Giuliani, Dr., is the Head of the Digital Earth Unit and Swiss Data Cube Project Leader at GRID-Geneva of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Geneva’s Institute for Environmental Sciences. He is a geologist and environmental scientist who specialises in Remote Sensing, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). He also works at GRID-Geneva of the UnitedNations Environment Programme (UNEP) since 2001, where he was previously the focal point for Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and is currently the Head of the Digital Earth Unit. Dr. Giuliani’s research focuses on Land Change Science and how Earth observations can be used to monitor and assess environmental changes and support sustainable development.

Dirk Tiede

Dirk Tiede, Dr., is Associate Professor at the University of Salzburg, Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS, Austria, and co-head of the research area EO Analytics. His research focuses on methodological developments in image analysis using optical EO data, object-based methodologies and process automation in the context of Big EO data analysis. Research fields include environmental monitoring and support of humanitarian relief operations, for which he received the Christian-Doppler-Award of the Federal State of Salzburg in 2014.

Alex Leith

Alex Leith, Assistant Director, Digital Earth Africa Technologies at Geoscience Australia. Alex Leith is a technical leader at Geoscience Australia, who works with a team of software developers and data engineers to enable people to more easily work with Earth observation data. Alex graduated with a degree in Surveying and Spatial Information Sciences with honours in 2011, and was certified as a Geographic Information Systems Professional in 2015.

Fang Yuan

Fang Yuan, Dr., is the Director of Operations for the Digital Earth Africa establishment team in Geoscience Australia. Fang is an astrophysicist and an Earth observation scientist, with expertise in optical and radar remote sensing and image and spatial analysis. Fang has led the development of EO-based products for natural resources mapping, disaster management, and land cover change monitoring for Australia and Africa.

Adam Lewis

Adam Lewis, Dr., is Senior Advisor to Digital Earth Africa, with over 30 years of experience in marine and terrestrial natural resources management, spatial information analysis and Earth observation. He led the development of the Australian Geoscience Data Cube, played a significant role in the creation and evolution of the Open Data Cube, and contributed to the development of Analysis Ready Data through the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS). In 2020, Dr. Lewis was recognised with the Australian Public Service Medal.