Delivered-To: igsmail@igscb.jpl.nasa.gov Message-Id: Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2004 08:55:38 -0800 To: IGS Mail From: Yehuda Bock Subject: [IGSMAIL-4829]: XML for Geodesy Web Page Sender: owner-igsmail Precedence: bulk ****************************************************************************** IGS Electronic Mail 05 Feb 08:55:46 PST 2004 Message Number 4829 ****************************************************************************** Author: Yehuda Bock, David Malveaux, Brent Gilmore, Michael Scharber We are pleased to announce the creation of a new page "XML for Geodesy" on the SOPAC Web Site. The first product is an XML Schema definition for GPS/GNSS site metadata (i.e., "Site Logs"), as a possible alternative to current "human readable" approaches. We all know and have experienced the difficulty in achieving accurate and timely site metadata, and that site metadata are the most basic backbone elements on which subsequent data, data products, and data interpretations rely. This is why we have tackled this aspect first. The XML Site Logs Schema definition is open for public review and comment at http://sopac.ucsd.edu/projects/xml/. The SOPAC database is now able to produce on demand XML-Encoded site logs, which contain the full content of IGS Site Logs. Please try this out at http://sopac.ucsd.edu/scripts/dbXMLSiteLog.cgi. The XML schemas developed by SOPAC exist as a set of modular components one can use to construct other schemas for more specific applications. These components (sub-schemas) currently encompass a variety of information pertaining to GPS (and other GNSS) stations or monuments (i.e. location, identification, contact agency, etc), GPS equipment (i.e. receiver, antenna), and GPS field surveys. The IGS Site Information Log schema for instance, is broken into four separate XML namespaces: equipment, contact, possible interferences, and monument information. These sub-schemas, along with the schema components used to create them, are available from http://sopac.ucsd.edu/ns/ and will be part of our plans to construct a public XML schema repository for data models associated with high-precision geodesy. In turn, the repository will serve as a launch pad for a variety of development related to a number of future projects, with participation from other agencies and individuals fully welcome. Properly implemented, and utilized, this repository will help eliminate the problem of duplicated work across different agencies, and allow XML developers in the GPS community to build other schemas, either manually or on-the-fly using XML-oriented tools like XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Languages Transformation) and XPATH (XML Path Language) to support future applications. We are anxious to get feedback from other GPS archives and groups on our particular design of the XML metadata schema, so that we can achieve community consensus. The GPS metadata schema bundle can be obtained at http://sopac.ucsd.edu/projects/xml/metadataSchema/. Members of SCIGN's NASA REASoN CAN project, a collaboration of JPL, SIO, and USGS are reviewing the metadata schema. Other XML schemas, for example, for position time series and SINEX files are being developed under the NASA project and will be made available for public comment as they mature. -- *********************************************** Yehuda Bock e-mail: ybock@ucsd.edu Research Geodesist Phone: (858) 534-5292 & Senior Lecturer Fax: (858) 534-9873 WWW: http://sopac.ucsd.edu/; http://csrc.ucsd.edu/ Director, Scripps Orbit and Permanent Array Center (SOPAC) Director, California Spatial Reference Center (CSRC) Address: University of California San Diego Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics 9500 Gilman Drive DEPT 0225 La Jolla, CA 92093-0225 FedEx Address: Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics Scripps Institution of Oceanography 8785 Biological Grade, Room 4208 La Jolla, CA 92037 ***********************************************