At the Intersection of Research, Technology, and the Internet

Tropical Rain Forest Information Center Builds High-Tech Web Site

The Esri Professional Services Division is assisting the Basic Science Remote Sensing Initiative (BSRSI) at Michigan State University (MSU) in the design of a Web site for the Tropical Rain Forest Information Center (TRFIC). The Web site illustrates how GIS functionality improves an Internet site, how easy the functionality is for users to implement, and how close the industry is to achieving software interoperability.

The TRFIC is a member of the NASA funded Earth Science Information Partnership (ESIP). The ESIP program was developed by NASA to explore new ways of distributing scientific data to interested users and the objective of TRFIC is to provide access, via the Web, to LANDSAT and JERS images of the tropics. Using ArcIMS, MSU and Esri Professional Services are building a spatial query engine that Internet users can use to browse, identify, and order LANDSAT and JERS satellite imagery. Users query the image archive by cloud cover, date, satellite sensor, geographic features (such as rivers, cities, mountains, etc.), and geographic locations (latitude/longitude coordinates). Images meeting the query criteria, called "hits," are displayed on top of a coastlines, rivers and lakes database. Click on an image footprint and a full resolution (30 meters) image appears on screen wherein the user can pan, zoom, and define band combinations. If the image is desirable it can be added to a shopping cart and purchased.

The new site is only one of many in which GIS functionality is starting to appear. "Originally, only static maps could be posted on the Internet," says David Maguire, Esri director of products. "They were essentially just images embedded in the coding of the page. The next step was interactive mapping, in which users could specify things like scale, content, and symbolization. And the next step, which is where we are now, is providing real GIS functionality such as geocoding, buffering, routing, and overlay."

The advances in functionality are underlain by advances in technology. Esri provides support services to give access to this technology to organizations like MSU, whose primary objective is not to develop Web site technology itself, but rather to exploit its potential. To allow MSU to determine the functionality for its Web site without simultaneously trying to learn how to implement ArcIMS, Esri is writing the scripts for a first prototype of the site. "There will be three prototypes," Lata Iyer, Esri project manger, says. "The first prototype will implement a majority of the functionality. For the second prototype, Esri will define the implementation and 'hand-off' to MSU to take the lead. The third prototype will consist of Esri support for the MSU development team."

In response to the growing interest in Internet GIS tools, on September 10, 1999, Esri demonstrated ArcIMS at a Web-mapping test bed demonstration coordinated by the OpenGIS Consortium (OGC). "Supporting this initiative is a part of Esri's overall strategy to build open interoperable software that can be easily implemented by our users," says Maguire.

ArcIMS, which is standards-based and compatible with many Internet and Esri technologies, illustrates Esri's commitment to this objective-enabling users to access, view, and analyze spatial data with ease and efficiency. With OGC and Esri's shared vision of the future, and with Esri already far down the path toward developing technology that makes it possible, the dream seems sure to become a reality.

For more information, contact Lata Iyer, Esri project manager (tel.: 909-793-2853, ext. 1-2314; e-mail: lata_iyer@esri.com), or David Skole, MSU professor (e-mail: skole@pilot. msu.edu).

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