including programs for altimeter processing, (c) a geoid service, i.e. In the MANICORAL project three typical information service prototypes are developed and tested: (a) a satellite radar altimeter data service, (b) a software service, i.e. Today the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) information service is a Users may, through video and audio tools, get in direct contact with the IAG Central Bureau, or the IAG Services and officers who have access to these tools.
Release C (planned) shall finally achieve full deployment of the distributed "Multi-Mission User Information Services" in cooperation with international partners to provide a user service front-end to an interoperable network of service providers. Some services will already be distributed to gain operational experience for the next release. Release B (under implementation) will offer new services and is based on a re-engineered architecture implementing full distribution capability. Release A has been transferred as centralised system to the operational phase and makes the earthnet online service available to the public, exposing the MUIS service philosophy to a broad user community. Considering this wish for "dynamic evolution", the MUIS project follows an iterative development cycle, planning 3 major releases. Early availability of initially limited services will support the understanding of the real user needs and allow tailoring of the services to changing requirements. Actually there is a large amount of services that could be of interest for the Earth Observation community, but cannot be implemented in short term (e.g. Opening a service to the public in a dynamically changing environment like the Web (and EO interoperability ) will necessarily trigger new and changing user demands.
As a final goal this view shall be offered to the user as a distributed and interoperable on-line service network of international providers. The perception has grown that this should be replaced by a more generic paradigm of access to 'products', more familiar to a less specialised user from the daily commercial world.
In the past, providers mainly offered their archive inventories as on-line user services. The key requirements of the system is the development of an integrated and user-oriented view for access to Earth Observation data. The earthnet online service is provided through release A of the "Multi-Mission User Services" (MUIS) project. A new information resource - called "earthnet online" - is available to the Earth observation community on the World Wide Web at.