81Building Open Environments to Meet Big Data Challenges in Earth Sciences
At the back end is data component/tier allowing the system to access distrib-
uted data resources regardless of where or how the data are archived as long as the
data-provider services comply with the interface standards. This tier consists of data
servers using the dened CDE to provide data to the data requestors seamlessly
regardless of the format, projection, resolution, and the archive location of data. The
data requestors of the system include system’s geoprocessing service middleware,
any application and data analysis systems, application clients, and human users. The
CDE allows requestors to specify the requirements for the data they want. A CDE-
compliant ser ...