openEO: an international standard

The new generations of Earth observation satellites – in particular the European Space Agency’s Sentinel missions – are producing unprecedented volumes of data, opening up new possibilities for research and numerous application sectors. Storing and processing these datasets on a single computer is now impossible, which is why the trend is moving toward cloud computing: users access data stored on a cloud platform, use specialized software available on that platform to process it, and can even make the results freely available so that others can continue working on them, in an Open Science approach.

Cloud systems, however, are often structured differently and use their own technical solutions. Without common standards, it is difficult for users and developers to use applications efficiently across different systems. A standardized interface like openEO is therefore of fundamental importance.

About ten years ago, the idea of openEO was first presented in a white paper, and Eurac Research has been involved in its development ever since. In collaboration with various research partners, a team led by Alexander Jacob worked on the technical implementation, scientifically validating the method, and testing it in case studies on forest and snow monitoring. The project was initially funded through the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 program.

In the following years, the European Space Agency supported the evolution of openEO. The openEO Platform was first expanded into an operational service and, thanks to the concept of data and server federation, has become one of the leading providers of geodata. Standardization greatly simplifies the analysis of this data. In 2023, openEO also became the official interface for the European Copernicus Data Space portal, which offers free and direct access to Copernicus satellite data – such as that from the Sentinel missions. A further step was joining the European Commission’s flagship initiative Destination Earth, to create high-precision models of the Earth – “digital twins” – that integrate observations and advanced models to simulate, predict, and assess climate scenarios and environmental impacts.

As such, a key element of openEO’s evolution is its role as a bridge between traditionally distinct fields, having become the go-to interface for both those working with remotely sensed Earth observation data and those working with modeled data.

The approval of openEO as an OGC community standard now represents a further milestone. This open standard is jointly defined and maintained by an international community composed of software developers and end-users. This recognition also highlights Europe’s fundamental contribution to the global evolution of satellite data analysis.