A digital earth prototype system: DEPS/CAS

Digital Earth is an information expression of the real Earth, and is a new way of understanding the Earth in the twenty-first century. This paper introduces a Digital Earth Prototype System (DEPS) developed at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Discussions are made to the theoretical model and technical framework of the Digital Earth, and its related key technologies on spatial information processing, spatial data warehouse technology, virtual reality technology, high-performance and parallel computing. The DEPS consists of seven sub-systems including the spatial data, metadata, model database, Grid geoscience computing, spatial information database, maps service and virtual reality. Meanwhile, we developed a series of application systems such as the environment monitoring for the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing, natural disasters evaluation, digital city, digital archeology, Asia regional aerosol and climate change. The DEPS/CAS displayed the application ability and potential of the Digital Earth in three levels: the global, national and regional.