The Full Picture

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These portals existed prior the emergence of the Global Earth
Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), and will continue to exist.
However, they are typically established by each member and organi-
zation according to their own guidelines and rules. Or in the case of
community portals, they are defined within the consensus reached
within a community of users.
The GEOPortal and GEOSS
GEOSS is a system of systems contributed by GEO members and
participating organizations. Each of its components is operated within
its own mandate. By its very nature, GEOSS is heterogeneous. This
applies equally to the portal components of the GEOSS. However,
starting from the concept of community portals, the GEOPortal goes
one step further. It extends the community concept to a global commu-
GEOPortal and its interfaces to the GEOSS resources
Source: ESA Earth Observation Ground Segment Department
GEO Secretarial
home page
GEOSS
Registry
GEOSS Clearinghouse
GEOSS Resources
(Data access; Dissemination; Processing; Modelling; Other)
GEOportal GEOSS
Community
Portals
GEOSS
Member/participating
organization portal
GEOSS
Member/participating
organization portal
GEOSS
Member/participating
organization portal
1
4
5
2
3 6
7
GEOSS
Member/participating
organization portal
The interface between the GEOPortal and the community and other portals of the GEOSS can utilize different mechanisms, e.g. Web services
nity and across all users of the GEOSS – no matter where
the user is located or the nature of usage within the
GEOSS areas of application, GEOPortal provides an entry
point to the resources. It achieves this goal based on two
key characteristics:
• A high-level structure of the information according to
the nine GEOSS societal benefit areas (SBAs) – disas-
ter, health, energy, climate, water, weather, ecosystem,
agriculture, biodiversity
• A global coverage linking all resources contributed by
the GEO members and participating organizations.
In addition, the GEOPortal provides a consistent look and
feel agreed at GEO level. With this, the GEOPortal estab-
lishes itself as the gateway to global Earth observation
data, information and Earth observation user services.
The GEOPortal and the GEOSS architecture
The GEOPortal is part of the GEOSS architecture, with
interfaces towards the different resources of GEOSS. It
complements the already existing community portals and
other portals operated by GEOmembers and participating
organizations and as such, unlike most other GEOSS
components, it does not belong to any single member or
organization. The already existing access of individual
users and user communities to the specific portals and
related resources continues to exist, and may be used if
the user is only interested in specific resources that are
already known (see interface 2 in the diagram, GEOPortal
and its interfaces to the GEOSS resources, on the previ-
Services list
Search by SBA Search by location
SBA main page GEOportal homepage
Service details page Service portal/website
Location page
Navigation schema for discovery of service information
The GEOPortal supports the browsing through a comprehensive directory
of earth observation information and resources and international initiatives
relevant to GEO members and participating organizations
Source: ESA Earth Observation Ground Segment Department
GEOSS COMPONENTS – D ISSEMINATION /INFORMATION SYSTEMS