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OGC Seeks Comments on Modular, GML-Based Web Coverage Service 2.0

The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC®) seeks public comment on the draft OGC Web Coverage Services (WCS) Interface Standard Version 2.0. The OGC WCS standard supports electronic retrieval of geospatial data as "coverages" -- that is, digital geospatial information representing space/time-varying phenomena such as satellite imagery or digital elevation models. The WCS 2.0 draft has several significant enhancements over previous versions. WCS 2.0 is harmonized with the Geography Markup Language coverage model, leading to increased interoperability across OGC standards. Further, WCS 2.0 is highly modular and follows the core/extension design pattern, which allows for standard that is easier to understand and implement.

The WCS standard defines a standard interface and operations that enable interoperable access to single or multi-dimensional geospatial coverages. Services implementing this standard provide an interface with a standard set of operations for accessing original or derived sets of geospatial coverage information. An important aspect of the WCS standard is that it allows access and retrieval of raw, unprocessed imagery, which is often required by rendering and processing services. Further information about WCS can be found at the WCS Service page (http://www.ogcnetwork.net/wcs) of the OGC Network.

The proposed OGC WCS 2.0 standard and information on submitting comments on this document are available at http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/requests/61. The public comment period closes on 14 April 2010.

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 390 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC® Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org.