Earth observing data systems in the Internet era

There has been an unprecedented increase of capabilities in distributed dat a systems in the last few years enabling different science and applications areas. The existence of the Internet and the World Wide Web afford users w ith access to data at diverse distributed sites that would had been very di fficult in the past and only available to specialists. In remote sensing it self, global Earth observing missions and operational satellites produce an d will continue to produce large volumes of public domain data. The existen ce of the Internet and the World Wide Web allow these data to be accessed b y a variety of scientists, applications experts and the general public. Yet , the unprecedented large volumes of such missions are presenting a challen ge to wide user access with out either higher ban dwidths of future Interne t systems or without more focused, user-centered data productions. The latt er is best achieved in federated data systems. Both requirements will be ne eded for future data systems. Here rue explore different functionalities af forded by distributed data systems in Earth observations and associated in feroperability options. As an example, we examine options in the Earth Scie nce information Partners Federation. Results of several tests interoperabil ity options applicable to federated systems are presented.