Navigating large databases using a new high-level computer language

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is in the process of forming the Pan American Center for Earth and Environmental Studies (PACES). PACES will conduct basic and applied research that will contribute to NASA´s Mission to Planet Earth. PACES will provide a repository of information which will enable researchers to develop an improved understanding of geological, ecological and environmental processes and changes in land usage taking place in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico region. The technical plan for the PACES center calls for research in several areas: geological studies of the Rio Grande Rift region, studies of human environmental impacts, and investigation of high level languages for processing large databases, which is the focus of the paper. PACES will also contribute much needed research in defining high level tools for processing and analyzing remotely sensed data. It is clear that the current state of technology provides us the ability to acquire and store huge amounts of data. However, it remains a problem to access and analyze the data to produce information content which can, in turn, be used by scientists and policy makers