A Web-based Scientific Data and Information Super Server with a Flexible Xml Metadata Support

In the information age and with explosively increasing volumes of remote sensing, model and other Earth Science data available, scientists are now facing challenges to find and to access interesting data sets effectively and efficiently through the Internet. In this paper, we first discuss the DIstributed MEtadata Server (DIMES) prototype system. Designed to be flexible yet simple, DIMES uses XML to represent, store, retrieve and interoperate metadata in a distributed environment. In addition to regular metadata search, DIMES provides a web-based metadata navigation interface by using the “nearest neighbor search.” We also discuss a system designed to integrate an existing data access and analysis server, namely the GrADS/DODS server, and the DIMES to form a Scientific Data Information Super Server (SDISS), which supports both metadata and data. The SDISS guarantees the consistency between the content of the data server and the content of the metadata server. A use case of the SDISS is also discussed.