Design and Application of Integrated Database for a Large Remote Sensing Processing System

It is necessary to provide any essential background data and thematic data timely in image processing and applications. In fact, it is very difficult to integrate different kinds of data into one database that is managed by commercial GIS or image processing software such as ARC/INFO or ERDAS. In this paper, the author describes an integrated database management system which is a framework based on different kinds of database, such as image database, vector spatial database, spatial entity spectrum characteristics database, spatial entity image sample database, control point (tics) database, documents database, models database, and product database. The querying and retrieving system, which are basic functions of integrated database management system, depend on metadata being divided into three parts: database metadata, dataset metadata and attribute field metadata. Finally, the author introduces the concept of virtual database that is a logical database based on other practical databases, and describes its structure and application in product making system for a large remote sensing application in detail.