Cloud Computing for Earth Observation

This chapter elaborates on the impact and benefits Cloud Computing may have on Earth Observation. Earth Observation satellites generate in fact Terato Peta-bytes of data, and Cloud Computing provides many capabilities that allow an efficient storage and exploitation of such data. Several scenarios related to Earth Observation activities are analyzed in order to identify the possible benefits from the adoption of Cloud Computing. As concrete proofs-of-concept, several activities related to Cloud Computing in the context of Earth Observation are exposed and discussed. Technical details are provided for a particular framework used by Earth Observation applications that has made the transition from using Grid services towards using Cloud services. A special attention is given to the avoidance of the vendor-lock-in problem.