MODster MODIS Namespace

(If you don't know what's going on here, skip to the Introduction.)

List Granules

Names like: URLs like:

List the MODIS granules that this MODster server knows about.
Use regular expressions to match names and/or URLs. (If blank, they match anything.)

Update List

Send this file:

Submit a text file of name-URL mappings to this MODster server.

Introduction

MODster is a distributed, decentralized inventory server for Earth science data granules (standard units of data content and structure.) MODster connects data granule users (people who know which specific granule they want, but who don't know who has it or how to get it) with data granule providers (people or institutions that keep granules accessible online.)

The key to making this work is a standard granule namespace. A granule namespace is a naming convention that associates particular names with particular granules, regardless of where those granules live. Different Earth science data products have their own granule namespaces.

Example: in the MODIS granule namespace, the granule name

MOD43A2.A1998365.h5.v8.001.1999001090020.hdf

always refers to the first version of the Level 3 16-day Bi-directional Reflectance Distribution Function product for 31 December 1998, at the 5th horizontal tile and 8th vertical tile, generated on 01 January 1999 at 9:00:20 AM.

A MODster URL is simply a standard way of referring to a data product namespace and one of its granules. MODster URLs have the general form:

http://server/namespace/granule

where granule is a granule name that conforms to a granule namespace, namespace is a MODster namespace, which is the name of a granule namespace whose conventions are known to MODster, and server is a MODster server, which is an HTTP server that can redirect namespace/granule requests to granule providers.

Example: If http://essw.bren.ucsb.edu/modster is a MODster server, and MODIS is the MODster namespace for MODIS granules, then a MODster URL for the previously-mentioned MODIS granule would be:

http://essw.bren.ucsb.edu/modster/MODIS/MOD43A2.A1998365.h5.v8.001.1999001090020.hdf

A MODster URL with no granule component gets a description of the MODster namespace, its authority (the persons or institutions responsible for documenting and maintaining the naming convention), and also any services for that MODster namespace that the MODster server supports. (These services aren't standardized, yet...)

Any similarity between MODster and certain well-known Internet-based music-sharing schemes is purely intentional...

Acknowledgements

MODster is being developed by the ESSW ESIP with support from NASA and the ESIP Federation.