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Microsoft TerraServer: A Spatial Data
Warehouse
June 1, 1999
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Download PDF

BibTex
Authors

Tom Barclay

Jim Gray

Don Slutz
Publication Type
Inproceedings
Pages
16
Number
MSR-TR-99-29

Abstract

Related Info
Abstract
Microsoft® TerraServer stores aerial, satellite, and topographic images of the earth in a SQL
database available via the Internet. It is the world’s largest online atlas, combining eight
terabytes of image data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and SPIN-2. Internet
browsers provide intuitive spatial and text interfaces to the data. Users need no special hardware,
software, or knowledge to locate and browse imagery. This paper describes how terabytes of
“Internet unfriendly― geo-spatial images were scrubbed and edited into hundreds of
millions of “Internet friendly― image tiles and loaded into a SQL data warehouse. All
meta-data and imagery are stored in the SQL database. TerraServer demonstrates that generalpurpose relational database technology can manage large scale image repositories, and shows
that web browsers can be a good geo-spatial image presentation system.
Related Info
Related Files
 msr_tr_99_29_terraserver.doc
Research Areas
 Data visualization, analytics, and platform
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