1. Session: Towards systematically curating and integrating
Data product description information for data users
Application of standards-based description of environmental sensor metadata
NSF/EarthCube X-DOMES (Cross Domain Observational Metadata for Environmental Sensing)
Felimon Gayanilo
Harte Research Institute
Texas A&M University Corpus Christi (

2. NSF/EarthCube Integrative Activities: Cross-Domain Observational Metadata Environmental Sensing Network (X-DOMES)
September 2015 – August 2017
Janet Fredericks (WHOI), Felimon Gayanilo (TAMUCC), Carlos Rueda (MBARI), Krzysztof Janowicz (UCSB)
Consulting with John Graybeal (Stanford), and Mike Botts (Botts Innovative Res.)

3. X-DOMES: Implementation Strategy

4. Community Standards: Semantic Web (W3C) & SensorML (OCG-SWE)
Domain Communities and sensor manufacturers create registered vocabularies and ontologies in an Ontology Registry for versioning and persistence (
Sensor manufacturers create the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) SensorML documents that describe sensor model metadata
Field operators create SensorML documents that reference the OEM SensorML and provide information about the specific sensor and its deployment.
Data providers can reference these files and include SensorML that describes processes, such as QC and derived products.
OGC – OpenGeospatial Consortium
OGC SWE or Sensor Web Enablement -  standards enable developers to make all types of sensors, transducers and sensor data repositories discoverable, accessible and useable via the Web
OGC-SWE-SensorML – Standard models and XML Schema for describing the processes within sensor and observation processing systems
Others in the SWE Framework:
Observations and Measurements (O&M) - The general models and XML encodings for observations and measurements
PUCK Protocol - Defines a protocol to retrieve a SensorML description, sensor "driver" code, and other information from the device itself, thus enabling automatic sensor installation, configuration and operation
Sensor Observation Service (SOS) – Open interface for a web service to obtain observations and sensor and platform descriptions from one or more sensors
Others:
Sensor Planning Service (SPS) – An open interface for a web service by which a client can 1) determine the feasibility of collecting data from one or more sensors or models and 2) submit collection requests.
SWE Common Data Model – Defines low-level data models for exchanging sensor related data between nodes of the OGC® Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) framework.
SWE Service Model ­– Defines data types for common use across OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) services. Five of these packages define operation request and response types.

5. 1. Vocabulary Registry and Repository (prototype @ https://xdomes
Marine Metadata Interoperability Ontology Registry and Repository (MMI ORR; version 3.3.x
ESIP:
X-DOMES:
Common documentation:
Common API doc.:
New Features (among many):
Import from spreadsheets;
Mapping of terms from different collections (e.g.
Remote hosting; and
Export in RDF/XML, JSON-LD, N3, Turtle, N-triples and RDF/JSON
RDF/XML is a syntax,[1] defined by the W3C,[2] to express (i.e. serialize) an RDF graph as an XML document. RDF/XML is sometimes misleadingly called simply RDF because it was introduced among the other W3C specifications defining RDF and it was historically the first W3C standard RDF serialization format. Although the RDF/XML format is still in use, other RDF serializations are now preferred by many RDF users, both because they are more human-friendly,[3] and because some RDF graphs are not representable in RDF/XML due to restrictions on the syntax of XML QNames.
JSON-LD, or JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data, is a method of encoding Linked Data using JSON. 
Notation3, or N3 as it is more commonly known, is a shorthand non-XML serialization of Resource Description Framework models, designed with human-readability in mind: N3 is much more compact and readable than XML RDF notation. 
N-Triples is a format for storing and transmitting data. It is a line-based, plain text serialization format for RDF (Resource Description Framework) graphs, and a subset of the Turtle (Terse RDF Triple Language) format
Turtle (Terse RDF Triple Language) is a format for expressing data in the Resource Description Framework (RDF) data model with a syntax similar to SPARQL. RDF, in turn, represents information using "triples", each of which consists of a subject, a predicate, and an object. Each of those items is expressed as a Web URI.

6. 2. Describe the Sensor Model (OEM) (prototype @ http://opensensorhub
The OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)
Unique Identifier – references a particular Sensor Model
Characteristics and Capabilities (accuracy, precision, operational range, etc.)
Contact of the manufacturer and references to documentation
Keywords, enabling technologies, intended applications, observable properties (input), output properties …
Is created by and registered by the manufacturer – providing a web-reference (IRI) to the document
“Get our descriptions out of notebooks and PDFs and into machine-actionable documents that can be queried for QC, data curation and translated into human-readable results – with the full power of the Semantic Web.”

7. 2. Describe the Sensor Model (OEM) (prototype @ http://opensensorhub
Instrument Identity (InstID): Sensor Descriptions
Unique Identifier – references a particular Sensor
It is created by the manufacturer and delivered to the sensor owner
Only information that is specific to the sensor as-built is included
it references the OEM file indicating that this sensor is a ‘typeOf’ the sensor model – thus inherits the descriptions unless explicitly documented otherwise.
“Get our descriptions out of notebooks and PDFs and into machine-actionable documents that can be queried for QC, data curation and translated into human-readable results – with the full power of the Semantic Web.”

8. 3. SensorML Repository and Registry (SRR)
Maintains a central repository of SensorML files from manufacturers and sensor owners/data providers;
Maintains versions
Can be referenced in other OGC standards such as OGC SOS DescribeSensor;
Can be accessed for QC processes; and
Can be used to generate catalogs or listing of sensors.

9. Community Involvement

10. Thank You!
Application of standards-based description of environmental sensor metadata: NSF/EarthCube, Cross Domain Observational Metadata for Environmental Sensing (X-DOMES) Project
Felimon Gayanilo
Harte Research Institute
Texas A&M University Corpus Christi (