MODBASE : a SciDB-powered system for large-scale distributed storage and analysis of MODIS earth remote sensing data

MODBASE, a collection of tools and practices built around the open source SciDB multidimensional data management and analytics software system, provides the Earth Science community with a powerful foundation for direct, ad-hoc analysis of large volumes of Level-1B data produced by the NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. This paper details the reasons for building the MODBASE system, its design and implementation, and puts it to the test on a series of practical Earth Science benchmarks using standard MODIS data granules.