Report on the CEOS Working Group on Information Systems and Services WGISS-22 Meeting

Short Report on the CEOS WGISS-22 Meeting held in Annapolis Md. USA, September 11-15

Background
The Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) is one of three subgroups supporting the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS). Established in the early 80’s,. CEOS addresses coordination of the satellite Earth Observation programs of the world's government agencies, along with agencies that receive and process data acquired remotely from space.
The previous WGISS-21 Meeting was held in Budapest, in May 2006. The Hungarian member of the GSDI Board was asked to attend it and present an in-dept overview on the objectives and activities of GSDI. In his presented contribution the interest was expressed in possible collaboration between GSDI and CEOS WGISS related one or more tasks of GEO. After the presentation WGISS Chair Ivan Petiteville of ESA and Co-Chair Ken McDonald of NASA welcomed the idea. As follow-on action, based on WGISS communication with Prof.Harlan Onsrud, President of GSDI, the Hungarian member of GSDI Board became liasion between GSDI and WGISS and vica versa as it was published in the GSDI Newsletter and WGISS website.
The Mission to participate WGISS-22 Meeting hosted by NASA was a shared action by GSDI Association and HUNAGI with the objective to learn and understand the ongoing activities in WGISS. Based on the collected information the formulation of a proposal for possible coordinated GSDI and WGISS actions to contribute to the implementation of selected GEO task(s) in the timeframe 2007-2009 is planned to be discussed by the next GSDI Board Meeting scheduled for early November.

Summary of the Results of the Mission
The WGISS-22 Meeting included the NASA Workshop entitled „Guiding NASA's Earth Science Data Systems into the Future” followed by the WGISS Plenary. A full afternoon session was devoted to discuss the potential WGISS contributions to selected GEO tasks. The agenda enabled presentations of the liasions including information on the forthcoming CODATA event in Beijing, the activities and achievements of the Chinese Remote Sensing Center (CCSDS), the eGeophysical Year, the EU's Information Society Program and GEO activities of the agencies including NOAA, NASA-USGEO, USGS EROS. Unfortunately I had to leave for the airport on the last working day just during the session devoted to the liasion’s reports, which hindered me to provide oral presentation on the latest developments and actions in GSDI and/or HUNAGI.
Results for GSDI
- At the talk with WGISS Chair Ivan Petiteville during the final brake on Friday I pointed out that my mission reached its goal having the opportunity to listen the presentations and discussions and understand the wide spectrum of ongoing activities performed in the Subgroups and Task Teams. It was noted, some GEO tasks of the 2007-2009 timeframe were identified which could be subject of joint actions. The proposal will be prepared according to the best practice I observed during the presentations for the next GSDI Board Meeting.
- Some of the GEO Tasks as potential subject related to the collaboration include:
o Proposal for disasters
§ DI-07-P1 Risk Management for Floods
o Proposal for Agriculture
§ - AG-07-P3 Operational Agricultural Monitoring System
§ - AG-07-P2 Agricultural Risk Management
o Proposal for capacity building
§ - CB-07-P3 Building National Capacity
o Proposals for Agrchitecture
§ AR-07-P1 Interoperability arrangements for GEOSS (WGISS)
§ AR-07-P2 Interface Implementation for GEOSS (WGISS)
o Proposals for Data Management
§ - DA-06-01 GEOSS Data Sharing Principles
§ - DA-06-02 GEOSS Quality Assurance Strategy
§ - DA-06-04 Data, Metadata and products Harmonisation
§ - DA-06-05 Guidance Document for Basic Geographic Data
§ - DA-06-06 Spatial Data Infrastructures (WGISS)
§ - DA-06-09 GEOSS Best Practices Registry

- The realised advantage of coupling spatial data infrastructure and related services with the Space-Earth Science data related ground segment infrastructure, R+D and applications could provide synergy and positive economic, societal and environmental impacts. Partnerships are vital for the way forward. The open data scheme is one of the most enabling tool, while interoperability is critical to the success of all WGISS and GEO endavours.
- A possible GSDI-WGISS joint contribution to GEO tasks implementation was welcomed by Osamu Ochiai, Senior Program Officer of the GEO Secretariat. The Geneva based Secretariat acknowledges GSDI as one of the major partner in the implementation of GEO tasks.
- Lorant Czaran of UN, Co-User ViceChair of WGISS agreed that GSDI, based of its interdisciplinary regional and national organisations (such as EUROGI and HUNAGI and many more) could articulate the also the user needs and feedbacks which are vitel for the application oriented R+D programmes
- The presentation on „The GEO 2007-2009 Work Plan Draft Version 2 Toward Convergence” of Osamu Ochiai of the GEO Secretariat is attached to this report int he form as it was introduced at the Kick-off Meeting of UNSDI HUCO in Budapest.

Results for HUNAGI
It should be mentioned GSDI has multipath connnections to GEO: directly and through its member organisations on regional and country level. In case of Hungary, the achievements can be summarised as follow:
- five copies of the just published booklet on the „Report of the Activities of the Hungarian Space Research 2004-2005” was submitted to the Chair and Co-Chair of WGISS (ESA ESRIN and NASA ESDIS respectively), representatives of USGS EROS, NASA GSFC and the Geo Secretariat. The publication was released for dissemination by the Hungarian Space Research Office, member of HUNAGI.
- Lola Olsen of NASA was agreed to launch a cooperation to establish a Hungarian language version of NASA’s Global Change Master Directory. The preliminary phase has been started, whereas HUNAGI member organisation EOGEO Hungary Foundation plays significant role. After the Japanese and Thai version, the Hungarian one would be the third non-English language version of GCMD.
- Referring to the GeoNetwork development of FAO mentioned by NASA, the announcement of the Kick-off meeting of the UNSDI Hungarian Coordination Office scheduled for September 28 was announced. Hungary was invited to join UNSDI as one of the some countries (with The Netherland, Czech Republic, India, Nigeria and Brazil) who will set up National level office for coordination int he pilot phase. (The Kick-off meeting was successful and HUNAGI received mandates from 16 governmental agencies to operate the Hungarian Coordination Office).
- By request, NASA EOSDIS submitted a copy of the DVD video „The Tour around the Cryosphere” to HUNAGI to be conveyed to the organisers of the „Scientists in Europe” event in Budapest, which will be broadcasted by three Hungarian TV Channels in October.
- The slides of the ppt „GEO Tasks 2007-2009” as presented by Osamu Ochiai of GEO Secretariat was submitted to HUNAGI to inform the Hungarian GI community on September 28

Meeting Participants
BNSC: Wyn Cudlip; CAS: Liu Chuang; CEOS: Larry P (USGS representative in CEOS)
CNES: Paul Kopp, Jean-Paul Astikidis; ESA: Ivan Petiteville (WGISS Chair), George Dyke (Secretary); ESYS: Lucie Viciano; GISTDA: Pakorn Apaphant; GSDI Association: Gábor Remetey ; GEO Secretariat :Osamu Ochiai; JAXA: Kengo Aizawa, Ben Burford, Prof. Hiromichi Fukui, Satoko Miura, Shinobu Kawahito; NASA: Bryant Cramer (Acting Director of Earth Science Division, NASA HQ), Liping Di, Michael Burnett, Kathy Fontaine, Ken McDonald, Lola Olsen, Stephen Ungar (Chair of CEOS WGCV), Yonsook Enloe
Natural Resources Canada: Brian NOAA: Bruce Barkstrom ; NRSCC: Guoqing Li, Liu Dingsheng; UN: Lorant Czaran; USGS: Stuart Doescher, Lyndon Oleson
(N.B. This list is based on personal notices. Official list of participants will be published on the http://wgiss.ceos.org website later.)

Structure of the WGISS
Chair: Ivan Petiteville, ESA
Vice-Chair: Kenneth McDonald, NASA
Co-User Vice-Chair: Chuang Liu, NRSCC
Co-User Vice-Chair: Lorant Czaran, UN
Secretariat: George Dyke
Task Teams:
WGISS Information Infrastructure – Stuart Doescher, USGS
Data Utilization - Lorant Czaran, UN and Chuang Liu, NRSCC
Technology and Services Subgroup
Chair: Paul Kopp, CNES, Vice-Chair: Dingsheng Liu, NRSCC
Task Teams:
International Directory Network (IDN) - Lola Olsen, NASA
Interoperable Catalog System (ICS) - Jolyon Martin, ESA
Data Services (DS) -Shinobu Kawahito, JAXA
Archive - Kengo Aizawa, JAXA
EOGEO Workshop - Clive Best, JRC
GRID - Li Guoqing, NRSCC
Projects and Applications Subgroup
Chair: Pakorn Apaphant, GISTDA, Vice-Chair: Kathy Fountaine, NASA
Task Teams:
Global Datasets - Lorant Czaran, UN
WTF CEOP - Satoko Miura, JAXA
WTF Core Test Sites - John Faundeen, USGS
WTF Natural Disaster Management - Pakorn Apaphant, GISTDA, Hiromichi Fukui, JAXA
CEOS EO Data Portal Project - Lorant Czaran/ Wyn Cudlip

Discussed Topics - Agenda
Reported Subgroup and Task Team activities, Workshop and Plenary Meeting
Monday, September 11, 2006
Welcoming Session, Silent Remembering on 9/11, Introductions of Participants Ivan Petiteville
Welcome Address Bryant Cramer, NASA (Acting Director, Earth Science Division)
Activities of the GEO Architecture & Data Committee Ivan Petiteville
GEO/CEOS SIT Call for Action Ken McDonald
WGISS Response Ken McDonald, Ivan Petiteville
User Vice Chair Report C. Liu, Lorant Czaran
WGISS Infrastructure Task Team (WITT) Stuart Doescher
Project and Applications Subgroup
Opening Pakorn Apaphant and Kathy Fontaine
WGISS-WGCV Core Test Site Status Lyn Oleson
WTF-CEOP
Overall status Satoko Miura
Status & Demo from JAXA Satoko Miura, Ben Burford
Status & Demo from NASA Ken McDonald, Yonsook Enloe
EO Data Portal Task Team
Task Team Update and ICEDS Demo Wyn Cudlip
Global Data Sets Task Team Lorant Czaran
Natural Disaster Management Project
NDM Overview Pakorn Apaphant
IDN portal for "tsunami" data Lola Olsen
Sentinel Asia Hiromichi Fukui
ASIAES Clearing house Pakorn Apaphant
ICS eoPortal for exchanging "tsunami" data Paul Kopp
Data archives: standard and formats Kengo Aizawa
Discussion and Summary
Contributions to GEO Pakorn Apaphant
New Projects Kathy Fontaine
Discussion on 5-year plan
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Technology & Services Subgroup
Opening Paul Kopp
Interoperable Catalogue System Task Team (ICS)
EOSDIS clearing house (ECHO) update Yonsook Enloe
OGC catalogue related activities Charles Heazel
HMA update Paul Kopp
Ontology Technology applied to Catalogues Paul Kopp
Grid Task Team (GRID)
Grid Task Team Review Guoqing Li
CNES Agency Report on Grid Paul Kopp
Introduction to WAG concepts Jean–Pierre Antikidis
Implementation of Product Virtualization in a Geospatial Grid Liping Di
Introduction to WAG and its definition by CNES Jean–Pierre Antikidis
CNES: WAG Technical Requirements Paul Kopp
Understanding to WAG and Inter-Grid Zhenchun Huang, Tsinghua University
Purdue GRID Report Prof. Sebastien, Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, Purdue Univ
A Concept of International Virtual Earth Observatory Liping Di
Interoperability Handbook Discussion, Document, Update
Data and Services Task Team (DSTT)
Opening Shinobu Kawahito
Mass-market Geo - Emerging Trends and Standards Brian McLeod
IDN Services: Providing Access To Earth Science
Tools, Software, and Models Tyler Stevens
Product Vitalizations though Web Service Chaining Liping Di
ECHO Web Service Progress and Demo Michael Burnett
Services for agricultural application Ben Burford
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
EOGEO Shinobu Kawahito
Archive Task Team
Opening Kengo Aizawa
ATT contribution to GEO Kengo Aizawa
Scientific Data Appraisal John Faundeen
Off Site Archiving John Faundeen
Landsat Archive Conversion Update Cheryl Greenhagen
Update to Media Study - Report Tom Bodoh
International Directory Network Task Team
Introduction, Review of Minutes & Action Items from Budapest, Lola Olsen
IDN Newsletter, Lola Olsen
Usage Statistics, Keyword Status, Portals Lola Olsen
Node Presentations and Reports
North American profile for ISO19115 Mohamed Habbane
Multilingual GCMD pdate Kengo Aizawa
Software Development & Science
Plans for the Future: Feedback TBD
Chesapeake Bay Area Mapserver Tyler Stevens
Technology & Services Subgroup Session Wrap up and Conclusion
Host Workshop: Guiding NASA's Earth Science Data Systems into the Future
Missions to Measurements Erich Stocker
NASA’s Strategy for Enabling the Discovery, Access, and Use of Earth Science Data Frank Lindsay
Advanced Information System Technology Amy Walton (TBC)
Evolution of EOSDIS Elements Ken McDonald
The Tour of the CRYOSPHERE – Movie loop
Earth Science Data System Working Groups Kathy Fontaine
Thursday, September 14, 2006
WGISS Plenary - WGISS Liaison Reports
CODATA Liu Chuang
CCSDS Wyn Cudlip
WDC Dave Clark
eGY Dave Clark
Future WGISS Meetings Ken McDonald
European Commission Information Society Program Jean-Pierre Antikidis
WGISS 5-year plan Ivan Petiteville
CEOS Industry Study Lucie Viciano
CEOS Working Group 3-way Joint Meeting Kathy Fontaine, Ken McDonald
WGISS-GEO Discussions
Session Introduction and Instructions Ivan Petiteville, Ken McDonald
Status on SIT-GEO Actions
WGISS Contributions to GEO Work Plan Ken McDonald
Constellation Concept Stephen Ward, Ivan Petiteville
GCOS Jean-Louis Fellous, Ivan Petiteville
Agency GEO Activities
NOAA GEO-IDE Bruce Barkstrom
NASA - US-GEO Kathy Fontaine
GEO 2007-2009 Work Plan Overview - Report Osamu Ochiai
WGISS-GEO Contributions – Working Session chaired by Ivan Petiteville, Ken McDonald
Refinement of GEO Work Plan Contributions
Friday, September 15, 2006
Draft Report to Plenary and Final Report to CEOS SIT in La Jolla by Ivan Petiteville
Agency and Representative Reports were introduced by ESA, JAXA, BNSC, NOAA,
CNES, USGS and NRSCC

A longer version of the report will be extended with the personal notes connected with agenda items and submitted to GSDI/HUNAGI.


Budapest, October 1, 2006

compiled by
Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp
Secretary General, HUNAGI
GSDI-WGISS liasion officer
appointed by GSDI Association and CEOS WGISS

Appendices
WGISS Liaisons (http://wgiss.ceos.org)
Close coordination needed to other organizations where their activities related to activities within WGISS.
Climate & Meteorology - Howard Dimond
Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) CCSDS Liaison Report Wyn Cudlip
eGY - Dave Clark
GEO - (Group on Earth Observation) - Ivan Petiteville
Global Map Project -
www.gsdi.org - Gabor Remetey-Fulopp
ICSU / Committee on Data - Chuang Liu
International Council for Science (ICSU) - ICSU/WDC Liaison Report - Dave Clark
International Society for Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing - Hiromichi Fukui
International Standards Organization - Lorant Czaran
Open Geospatial Consortium - Liping Di
Special Information Management Advisory Group - Allan Doyle
WG Education, Training & Capacity Building - Chuang Liu
GEO Tasks: Point of Contacts at WGISS
DI-06-01 Pakorn Apaphant, GISTDA
CL-06-05 Lola Olsen, NASA
WA-06-05 Satoko Miura, JAXA
WA-06-06 Satoko Miura, JAXA
WA-06-07 Satoko Miura, JAXA
AG-06-04 Wyn Cudlip, BNSC
EC-06-06 Wyn Cudlip, BNSC
US-06-03 Wyn Cudlip, BNSC
GEO related documents
GEO documents are available at http://earthobservations.org
Related task documents are available at ftp://ftp.wmo.int/Projects/GEO/