Earth Observation Data Cubes • Gregory Gilberto Giuliani, Camara, Brian Killough and Stuart Minchin Earth Observation Data Cubes Edited by Gregory Giuliani, Gilberto Camara, Brian Killough and Stuart Minchin Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Data www.mdpi.com/journal/data Earth Observation Data Cubes Earth Observation Data Cubes Special Issue Editors Gregory Giuliani Gilberto Camara Brian Killough Stuart Minchin MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade Special Issue Editors Gregory Giuliani Gilberto Camara University of Geneva Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Switzerland Switzerland Brian Killough Stuart Minchin National Aeronautics and Space Geoscience Australia Administration (NASA) Australia USA Editorial Office MDPI St. Alban-Anlage 66 4052 Basel, Switzerland This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Data (ISSN 2306-5729) in 2019 (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/data/special issues/ EODC). For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below: LastName, A.A.; LastName, B.B.; LastName, C.C. Article Title. Journal Name Year, Article Number, Page Range. ISBN 978-3-03928-092-6 (Pbk) ISBN 978-3-03928-093-3 (PDF) Cover image courtesy of European Space Agency. c 2020 by the authors. Articles in this book are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. The book as a whole is distributed by MDPI under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. Contents About the Special Issue Editors ..................................... vii Gregory Giuliani, Gilberto Camara, Brian Killough and Stuart Minchin Earth Observation Open Science: Enhancing Reproducible Science Using Data Cubes Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 147, doi:10.3390/data4040147 ...................... 1 Gregory Giuliani, Joan Mas´o, Paolo Mazzetti, Stefano Nativi and Alaitz Zabala Paving the Way to Increased Interoperability of Earth Observations Data Cubes Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 113, doi:10.3390/data4030113 ...................... 7 Hannah Augustin, Martin Sudmanns, Dirk Tiede, Stefan Lang and Andrea Baraldi Semantic Earth Observation Data Cubes Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 102, doi:10.3390/data4030102 ...................... 30 Hans-Peter Plag, Shelley-Ann Jules-Plag A Transformative Concept: From Data Being Passive Objects to Data Being Active Subjects Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 135, doi:10.3390/data4040135 ...................... 49 John Truckenbrodt, Terri Freemantle, Chris Williams, Tom Jones, David Small, Cl´emence Dubois, Christian Thiel, Cristian Rossi, Asimina Syriou and Gregory Giuliani Towards Sentinel-1 SAR Analysis-Ready Data: A Best Practices Assessment on Preparing Backscatter Data for the Cube Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 93, doi:10.3390/data4030093 ...................... 74 Catherine Ticehurst, Zheng-Shu Zhou, Eric Lehmann, Fang Yuan, Medhavy Thankappan, Ake Rosenqvist, Ben Lewis and Matt Paget Building a SAR-Enabled Data Cube Capability in Australia Using SAR Analysis Ready Data Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 100, doi:10.3390/data4030100 ......................111 Chris Schubert, Georg Seyerl and Katharina Sack Dynamic Data Citation Service—Subset Tool for Operational Data Management Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 115, doi:10.3390/data4030115 ......................130 S¨oren Gebbert, Thomas Leppelt and Edzer Pebesma A Topology Based Spatio-Temporal Map Algebra for Big Data Analysis Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 86, doi:10.3390/data4020086 ......................142 Marius Appel and Edzer Pebesma On-Demand Processing of Data Cubes from Satellite Image Collections with the gdalcubes Library Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 92, doi:10.3390/data4030092 ......................167 Joan Maso, Alaitz Zabala, Ivette Serral and Xavier Pons A Portal Offering Standard Visualization and Analysis on top of an Open Data Cube for Sub-National Regions: The Catalan Data Cube Example Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 96, doi:10.3390/data4030096 ......................183 Steve Kopp, Peter Becker, Abhijit Doshi, Dawn J. Wright, Kaixi Zhang and Hong Xu Achieving the Full Vision of Earth Observation Data Cubes Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 94, doi:10.3390/data4030094 ......................200 v Charlotte Poussin, Yaniss Guigoz, Elisa Palazzi, Silvia Terzago, Bruno Chatenoux and Gregory Giuliani Snow Cover Evolution in the Gran Paradiso National Park, Italian Alps, Using the Earth Observation Data Cube Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 138, doi:10.3390/data4040138 ......................219 Richard Lucas, Norman Mueller, Anders Siggins, Christopher Owers, Daniel Clewley, Peter Bunting, Cate Kooymans, Belle Tissott, Ben Lewis, Leo Lymburner and Graciela Metternicht Land Cover Mapping Using Digital Earth Australia Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 143, doi:10.3390/data4040143 ......................244 Shushanik Asmaryan, Vahagn Muradyan, Garegin Tepanosyan, Azatuhi Hovsepyan, Armen Saghatelyan, Hrachya Astsatryan, Hayk Grigoryan, Rita Abrahamyan, Yaniss Guigoz and Gregory Giuliani Paving the Way towards an Armenian Data Cube Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 117, doi:10.3390/data4030117 ......................265 Trevor Dhu, Gregory Giuliani, Jimena Ju´arez, Argyro Kavvada, Brian Killough, Paloma Merodio, Stuart Minchin and Steven Ramage National Open Data Cubes and Their Contribution to Country-Level Development Policies and Practices Reprinted from: Data 2019, 4, 144, doi:10.3390/data4040144 ......................275 vi About the Special Issue Editors Gregory Giuliani, Dr., is Senior Lecturer in Earth Observations at the Institute for Environmental Sciences (University of Geneva, Switzerland) and Head of the Digital Earth Unit, UNEP/GRID-Geneva. He is leading the Swiss Data Cube project. He is also an ISDE Council Member and active contributor to GEO/GEOSS. His research focuses on land change science and how Earth observations can be used to monitor and assess environmental changes and support sustainable development. Gilberto Camara, Prof. Dr., has been director of the Group on Earth Observations secretariat since July 2018. He is a leading researcher in Geoinformatics, Geographical Information Science, and Land Use Change, and has been recognized internationally for promoting free access and open source software for Earth observation data. Under his guidance as Director for Earth Observation (2001–2005) and Director General (2006–2012), Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) made significant advances in land change monitoring using remote sensing, which contributed to Brazil achieving an 80% decrease in deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, supporting the commitment pledged by Brazil’s at the UNFCCC COP15. This achievement was hailed as “the biggest environmental success story in a decade” by the scientific journal Nature. In support of Brazil’s pledge to the 2015 Paris Agreement, Gilberto lead a team that projected Brazil’s future emissions from land use and agriculture. Brian Killough, Dr., has been with NASA for 31 years. He currently leads the Committee on Earth Observing Satellites (CEOS) Systems Engineering Office (SEO). The SEO supports the international CEOS organization which is comprised of 60 space agencies and organizations coordinating satellite earth observation data for enhanced societal benefit. Under the leadership of Dr. Killough, the SEO has a significant role in the new Open Data Cube initiative for enhanced global use of large volumes of satellite analysis ready data. Stuart Minchin, Dr., is currently the Chief of the Environmental Geoscience Division of Geoscience Australia. The Environmental Geoscience Division of Geoscience Australia is the center of expertise in the Australian Government for environmental earth science issues and the custodian of national environmental geoscience data, information, and knowledge. He has an extensive background in the management and modeling of environmental data and the online delivery of data, modeling, and reporting tools for improved natural resource management. vii data Editorial Earth Observation Open Science: Enhancing Reproducible Science Using Data Cubes Gregory Giuliani 1,2,* , Gilberto Camara 3, Brian Killough 4 and Stuart Minchin 5 1 Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, Bd Carl-Vogt 66, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland 2 United Nation Environment Programme, Science Division, GRID-Geneva, 11 Chemin des Anémones, CH-1219 Châtelaine, Switzerland 3 Group on Earth Observations, 7bis Avenue de la Paix, Case Postale 2300, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland; [email protected] 4 National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Langley Research Center, MS 457, Hampton, VA 23681, USA; [email protected] 5 Geoscience Australia, GPO Box 378, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +41-(0)22-379-07-09 Received: 21 November 2019; Accepted: 21 November 2019; Published: 25 November 2019 Abstract: Earth Observation Data Cubes (EODC) have emerged as a promising solution to efficiently and effectively handle Big Earth Observation (EO) Data generated by satellites and made freely and openly available from different data repositories. The aim of this Special Issue, “Earth Observation Data Cube”, in Data, is to present the latest advances