Interoperable Image Data Access through Arcgis Server

As networking and data storage technologies advance, web services have become a commonplace for data mining and sharing in an e-business model. Compared with business information, geospatial information is normally overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data. There has been a great need for the integration of web services and geospatial information to provide a platform for geospatial information dissemination. In recent years, geospatial web services have emerged into the mainstream for interoperable spatial information access over the network. The interoperability enabled by the standards makes web service more attractive considering the diversity in geospatial information. The OGC, a major player in standardizing geospatial web services, has initiated several web service specifications for data interoperability over the past few years. As an industry leader in GIS, ESRI has always been committed to keep up with industry standards and provide openness in its products. As an example, ESRI ArcGIS Server [1] is fully compliant with OGC WMS, WCS, and WFS specifications in addition to other industry standards. This paper will review the WMS and WCS specifications implemented in ArcGIS Server 9.3 for interoperable imagery data access as well as outline the process to publish and consume such services.