Distributed data systems and OWL: A space science example

T. W. Narock, A. Szabo, and R. P. Lepping

L-3 Communications EER, Vienna, Virginia, USA, and Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

Abstract:

The already extensive NASA space science data sets are expected to undergo a several order of magnitude increase in the coming decade due to a number of new missions in the Solar Terrestrial Probe and the Living With a Star (LWS) program. It is not practical, nor affordable, to constrain these vast new data sets to one standard or to one distribution type. Data providers should be offered the freedom to describe and distribute data as they see fit. To facilitate this, we expand upon our previous work and add an ontological layer to existing search and retrieval software. This software layer serves as unification for varying metadata and unites the otherwise isolated systems into one coherent distributed data system. The basis that we provide for uniting distributed data has applications that are paving the way for future space science "virtual observatories."

Proceedings, 2nd International Semantic Web Conference, Florida, October, in press, 2003