Big earth data: From data to information

Abstract

While we still lack a community-agreed definition of ‘big Earth data’, there is clear evidence that the data’s unprecedented volume, variety and velocity, as well as veracity, require changes to traditional ways of storing and analysing Earth observation (EO) data and sharing their value with the public. Alongside the challenges, opportunities also arise when continental or global-scale analyses become readily feasible, or when time series / time lapse analyses provide unprecedented insights. This contribution presents a broad overview of current trends, limitations and opportunities for an increased use of larger volumes of EO data, while having in mind that the main objective is to use big Earth data to foster the fifth ‘V’, namely value. The data become valuable if they can be transformed into information which matches specific contexts. The overview on big Earth data is complemented by specific implementations and use cases.