Hi,
I am learning about APEx and NoR and wanted to understand the differences.
What makes an application APEx-compliant?
As I am not having ESA TO sponsor, I can’t experiment but I need to understand how APEx Project environments work, it looks to me as highly customizable application, am I right?
If I need to create a processing system, Jupyter doesn’t sounds good, what will be the good approach.
Finally, there is a funny typo on the website
“Streamlining and facilitating the transition of R&D algorithms and applications into FAIR (finable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) compliant and operational EO cloud-service implementations”
FAIR → Findable, accessible…
Dear Olivier,
Here are the guidelines for interoperability and APEx-compliance: Interoperability and Compliance Guidelines – APEx - Documentation Portal
We have found the typo and will fix it. Thanks for alerting us to it.
I will leave my colleagues from VITO to respond to your other questions regarding the project environments and the processing system.
Best regards,
Sabrina (thriveGEO)
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Thanks a lot Sabrina for your fast answer.
I forgot to ask the main question about NoR and APEx.
I am not clear on the relationship; I can see on NoR catalog services which are APEx-compliant and on APEx note about NoR.
What could be the workflow to build my processing system if I have to rely on NoR and/or APEx
Thank & regards
Dear Olivier,
Thank you for your questions and for your interest in APEx.
APEx is an ESA initiative aimed at supporting ESA projects in making their algorithms, workflows, applications, and other project results more reusable, interoperable, scalable, and sustainable beyond the lifetime of an individual project. APEx provides two main types of support. First, Algorithm Services help projects transform EO algorithms and applications into scalable and reusable cloud services. Depending on the use case, this can include guidance and support for approaches such as openEO, OGC Application Packages, cloud deployment, performance optimisation, and onboarding into the APEx Algorithm Catalogue. Second, Project Environments provide configurable, managed components such as JupyterLab, CodeServer, QGIS, the Geospatial Explorer, Product Catalogue, Project Portal, and other collaboration tools.
NoR (Network of Resources) has a different role. It provides access to a portfolio of European EO and cloud services and, for ESA projects, a mechanism to request ESA sponsorship for the required resources and services. The current NoR sponsorship conditions and eligibility criteria should be checked on the NoR website.
Regarding the APEx/EarthCODE compliance indication in the NoR portfolio, APEx and EarthCODE define interoperability requirements for services and platforms. This indication helps identify NoR services that comply with the relevant interoperability specifications. Such a service does not necessarily form part of APEx itself; APEx services are designed to work with existing processing platforms rather than becoming a new processing platform. These tags indicate that the services comply with the APEx requirements. Sabrina has already shared the Interoperability and Compliance Guidelines with you to help you better understand the requirements.
Regarding your question about building a processing system, JupyterLab is primarily an interactive development and experimentation environment and does not necessarily need to serve as your production processing system. Depending on your existing application and requirements, there can be different approaches. For example, processing may be implemented using openEO, or existing software can be containerised and packaged as an OGC Application Package. The actual processing can then run on a suitable, compatible EO platform, with the required platform or cloud resources potentially obtained through NoR, where applicable. There is therefore no single processing architecture that is appropriate for every project.
To recommend a more specific approach, we would need to understand a little more about your use case, for example, whether you already have an existing processing application or algorithm, what type of data it processes, how it should be executed, and whether you need interactive, on-demand, or operational processing.
If you would like to discuss your use case in more detail, you are also welcome to contact the APEx team through the Contact Us section of the APEx website. Alternatively, you can use a private forum message to exchange contact details, such as email addresses, and arrange a meeting with the relevant team members.
Kind Regards,
Nuran (VITO)