Concept for an HDF-EOS image data construct

NASA´s Earth Science Data and Information Systems (ESDIS) Project has promulgated a standard format for the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Standard Data Products, HDF-EOS. HDF-EOS is based on the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) Hierarchical Data Format (HDF). At present HDF-EOS provides for “Swath”, “Point”, and “Grid” data constructs. This paper provides a concept for an “Image” data construct. Essential components include image data, palettes, and geolocation information; in addition a number of optional components are described. This paper sets forth a number of criteria to be considered in the development of this new standard construct, and discusses the options for the approach to standardization. This paper provides sketches of an implementation (using HDF constructs) of the main features of the concepts, and references to WWW Pages that provide examples