A geo-data server for antarctic data

This project is the natural evolution of the South Pole System for Antarctic Data Exchange [1] and has as main objectives the organisation, homogenisation, standardisation and diffusion of all the data acquired by the National Program for Research in Antarctica. A main activity is to design and implement a Geo-Data Server [2, 3, 4], constituted by a system storing consolidated data for remote consultation. Main features of Geo-Data Server are the definition of an Antarctic cartographic and image database, according to the international standards, a relational catalog, containing meta-information about the data archived in Geo-Data Server and a high-level interface to access the system. At present, a simulation prototype is under construction [5], composed of a UNIX workstation and three high-performance PCs networked, where the data managed are supplied by two Data Centres of South Pole System for Antarctic Data Exchange ('GEO' Centre, ENEA Casaccia, for remote sensing data, and 'TER' Centre, Dept. of Earth Science, University of Siena, for cartographic data). In this paper, the first results of the approach followed are shown.