Applications of Semantic Web for Earth Science

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Introduction

Semantic web technology is becoming ever more important in Earth Science applications in a number of diverse roles. Furthermore, it is likely to become an even more important enabler as ambitious data science efforts, such as the Earth Cube initiative and ESIP's own Earth Science Collaboratory, more forward. These enterprises seek to make it easier to bring disparate datasets together as well as disparate disciplines and even communities in an effort to leverage our burgeoning data in the service of understanding the Earth as a system. As these various resources and the communities leveraging them diversify, the need for semantic technology to help users navigate the sea of resources becomes more apparent. Indeed, this role in discovery is acknowledged in the key capabilities determined through the first EarthCube Charrette.

However, we should not neglect the important role semantic technology can and does play in other aspects of data for Earth Sciences. For instance, semantic technology can be found in a key role in several other areas noted in the Earth Cube charrette capabilities:

  • Automated Quality Assurance and Quality Control
  • Provenance capture and interpretation
  • Workflow construction
  • Data fusion

Many such applications use underpinned by semantic technology, with the result that its value is not always readily apparent. In this short white paper, we discuss several ongoing or completed projects and applications that use semantic web as an underpinning in order to raise awareness of this critical technology.

Data Quality Screening Service

The Data Quality Screening Service (DQSS) is designed to help automate the filtering of remote sensing data