EarthServer-2 · Project

Petabyte-Scale Earth Data Analytics Made Easy for Non-Experts

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Imagine you have a warehouse full of satellite images, weather records, and ocean measurements — petabytes of it — but no easy way to search through it. EarthServer-2 built a system that lets you slice, dice, and combine these massive datasets as easily as running a database query, even if you're not a data scientist. Think of it like Google Maps but for raw scientific data: you point, click, and get answers from datasets too large for any normal computer to handle. The technology already powers services at major weather and space agencies across Europe and Australia.

By the numbers

Petabyte-scale

Data cube size handled by the system

Consortium partners operating services

Countries with deployed services

SMEs in consortium

Total project deliverables produced

EUR 2,839,743

EU contribution to project

Annual service operation reports documenting live deployment

The business problem

What needed solving

Companies in environmental consulting, agriculture, insurance, and urban planning increasingly need to analyze massive satellite, weather, and climate datasets — but building in-house infrastructure for petabyte-scale geospatial analytics is prohibitively expensive and requires rare expertise. Most organizations either settle for small data samples or spend months on custom data pipelines that break when data formats change.

The solution

What was built

The project advanced the rasdaman Array Database into a production-grade system for querying petabyte-scale 3D and 4D earth observation data cubes, deployed it as operational services at 5 major data centers, and contributed to international standards (OGC, ISO SQL/MDA) ensuring long-term interoperability. Twenty deliverables were produced, including 3 annual service operation reports documenting live deployment.

Audience

Who needs this

Environmental consulting firms analyzing satellite and climate data for impact assessmentsAgTech companies building precision farming products from earth observation dataInsurance and reinsurance companies modeling climate and catastrophe riskGovernment agencies managing natural resources or disaster responseSmart city platforms integrating weather, air quality, and urban sensor data

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Environmental Consulting

mid-size

Target: Environmental monitoring and risk assessment firms

If you are an environmental consultancy dealing with slow, manual analysis of satellite and climate data for impact assessments — this project developed the rasdaman Array Database technology that lets you query petabyte-scale earth observation data cubes in real time. Instead of downloading terabytes of files and writing custom scripts, your analysts can run ad-hoc queries across 3D and 4D datasets covering air, water, and weather. The system was already operational at 5 major data centers across 5 countries.

Agriculture & Precision Farming

any

Target: AgTech companies and large farming operations

If you are an AgTech company struggling to integrate weather, soil moisture, and satellite vegetation data for precision farming recommendations — this project built services that let you combine and extract insights from multiple earth observation data cubes without building your own data infrastructure. The technology supports Copernicus and Sentinel satellite data, which means your products can tap into the latest European earth observation program. With 7 consortium partners already running operational services, the integration path is proven.

Insurance & Reinsurance

enterprise

Target: Property and catastrophe risk modelers

If you are an insurance company that needs to assess climate and natural disaster risk across large geographic areas — this project created tools to navigate, extract, and aggregate any-size space and time data cubes covering weather, ocean, and atmospheric conditions. The system handles petabyte-scale datasets and was tested operationally for 3 years with service reports documenting each year of operation. That means you can run historical climate queries across decades of data without building your own supercomputing infrastructure.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to use this technology?

The core technology is rasdaman, which is available as both open-source and commercial software from rasdaman GmbH, one of the 4 SMEs in the consortium. Licensing and service costs would depend on deployment scale. The project itself received EUR 2,839,743 in EU funding across 7 partners over 3 years.

Can this handle industrial-scale data volumes?

Yes — the system was specifically designed and tested with petabyte-scale data cubes at major institutions including ECMWF (European weather center), ESA, and GeoScience Australia. The 3 annual service reports document operational performance at these data centers over the full project period.

What is the IP and licensing situation?

The rasdaman Array Database is the core technology, developed by Constructor University Bremen and commercialized by rasdaman GmbH. It is available under dual licensing (open-source community edition and commercial enterprise edition). The project also contributed to open standards (OGC, ISO SQL/MDA), which are freely available.

Does it work with existing data systems and standards?

The system is built on open standards, specifically OGC Big Data standards and the ISO SQL/MDA standard for multi-dimensional arrays. It integrates with the Copernicus/Sentinel earth observation program and uses NASA's virtual globe technology for 3D/4D visualization. This standards-based approach means it can connect to existing geospatial infrastructure.

Is this still actively maintained and supported?

The project ended in April 2018, but rasdaman technology continues to be developed commercially. It was already supported by ESA during the project and positioned as a building block for COPERNICUS/Sentinel. The commercial entity rasdaman GmbH provides ongoing support and development.

How long would deployment take?

Based on available project data, the system was designed to be 'easy to install and maintain' as value-adding services extending existing data center portfolios. The 3-year service activity demonstrated deployment across 5 data centers in 5 countries, with operational service reports for each year documenting the rollout process.

Consortium

Who built it

The consortium of 7 partners across 5 countries (Australia, Germany, Greece, Italy, UK) is well-balanced for commercialization, with a 43% industry ratio and 4 SMEs — unusually high for a research infrastructure project. The mix of 3 industry players, 2 universities, and 2 research organizations means the technology was developed with real operational requirements in mind. Key deployment partners include world-class institutions like ECMWF (global weather data) and connections to ESA and GeoScience Australia, giving the technology immediate credibility and reference customers that any buyer would recognize.

CONSTRUCTOR UNIVERSITY BREMEN GGMBHCoordinator · DE
PLYMOUTH MARINE LABORATORY LIMITEDparticipant · UK
METEOROLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EARTH OBSERVATION SRLparticipant · IT
COMMUNICATION & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES EXPERTS ANONYMOS ETAIREIA SYMVOULEFTIKON KAI ANAPTYXIAKON YPIRESIONparticipant · EL
RASDAMAN GMBHparticipant · DE
EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR MEDIUM-RANGE WEATHER FORECASTSparticipant · UK
THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITYparticipant · AU

How to reach the team

Constructor University Bremen (Germany) — coordinator. Use SciTransfer matchmaking service for a warm introduction to the technical team.

Order a report on this consortium See CONSTRUCTOR UNIVERSITY BREMEN GGMBH profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want to access petabyte-scale earth data analytics without building your own infrastructure? SciTransfer can connect you directly with the EarthServer-2 team and help evaluate fit for your use case.

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