Wayland, MA, October 14, 2009. The GEOSS Architecture Implementation Pilot, Phase 2 (AIP-2) has been completed with leadership by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®). The AIP-2 Pilot activity, which began in September 2008, is a project of the GEO (Group on Earth Observations) AR-09-01b Task Team. OGC's activities in AIP-2 were sponsored in part by the USGS, ERDAS, Northrop Grumman and the European Space Agency. AIP-1 demonstrated GEO Portal and Clearinghouse solutions. AIP-2 established “operational, research and technical exemplars”, services that support several of the GEOSS Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs): Disaster Management, Biodiversity and Climate Change, Air Quality and Health, and Renewable Energy.
AIP-2 Engineering Reports are available (http://www.ogcnetwork.net/AIP2ERs ) for use by organizations in and outside of GEOSS. Videos of demonstrations developed in AIP-2 for six Communities of Practice are posted on the OGC website at http://www.ogcnetwork.net/pub/ogcnetwork/GEOSS/AIP2/index.html. An AIP-2 summary report is available at http://www.ogcnetwork.net/AIP2ERs#summary .
GEO Members and Participating Organizations provided components and services relevant to SBAs. They also participated in interoperability testing of the services to validate the architecture, and in the collaborative refinement of societal benefit scenarios to guide testing, demonstrations and operations of interoperable services.
AIP-2 developed a reusable process for Societal Benefit Areas to utilize the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (GCI). This process supports efficient communication and also implementation of SBA requirements and work processes into the informatics technology of the GCI. GCI is built upon GEOSS Interoperability Arrangements, including several OGC standards. As a result of AIP-2, the number and quality of GEOSS components has increased, and these will be exhibited at the GEO Plenary in November 2009.
Ivan Deloatch, USGS and co-chair of the GEO Architecture and Data Committee, commented that “The GEOSS process depends upon contributions from many organizations to build the system of systems. OGC has led the AIP process of AIP bringing together the contributed components in to a pilot-level capability that can now be considered for augmenting the GEOSS initial operating capability.”
For additional information and to learn how your organization can become involved in a planned AIP-3, see http://www.ogcnetwork.net/AIpilot or contact George Percivall, percivall@opengeospatial.org.
The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 385 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. The OGC's OpenGIS® standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. These standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org.
GEO (Group on Earth Observations) is a voluntary partnership of 124 governments and international organizations, launched in response to calls for action by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and by the G8 (Group of Eight) leading industrialized countries. GEO is coordinating efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems, or GEOSS. See http://earthobservations.org/about_geo.shtml.
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