<s>
The	O
Open	O
Geospatial	O
Consortium	O
Web	B-Application
Coverage	I-Application
Service	I-Application
Interface	O
Standard	O
(	O
WCS	O
)	O
defines	O
Web-based	O
retrieval	O
of	O
coverages	B-General_Concept
–	O
that	O
is	O
,	O
digital	O
geospatial	O
information	O
representing	O
space/time	O
-varying	O
phenomena	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
WCS	O
provides	O
access	O
to	O
coverage	B-General_Concept
data	I-General_Concept
in	O
forms	O
that	O
are	O
useful	O
for	O
client-side	O
rendering	O
,	O
as	O
input	O
into	O
scientific	O
models	O
,	O
and	O
for	O
other	O
clients	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
WCS	O
may	O
be	O
compared	O
to	O
the	O
OGC	O
Web	O
Feature	O
Service	O
(	O
WFS	O
)	O
and	O
the	O
Web	B-Application
Map	I-Application
Service	I-Application
(	O
WMS	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
with	O
WMS	O
and	O
WFS	O
service	O
instances	O
,	O
a	O
WCS	O
allows	O
clients	O
to	O
choose	O
portions	O
of	O
a	O
server	O
's	O
information	O
holdings	O
based	O
on	O
spatial	O
constraints	O
and	O
other	O
query	B-Protocol
criteria	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Unlike	O
OGC	B-Application
Web	I-Application
Map	I-Application
Service	I-Application
(	O
WMS	O
)	O
,	O
which	O
portrays	O
spatial	O
data	O
to	O
return	O
static	O
maps	O
(	O
rendered	O
as	O
pictures	O
by	O
the	O
server	O
)	O
,	O
the	O
Web	B-Application
Coverage	I-Application
Service	I-Application
provides	O
available	O
data	O
together	O
with	O
their	O
detailed	O
descriptions	O
;	O
defines	O
a	O
rich	O
syntax	O
for	O
requests	O
against	O
these	O
data	O
;	O
and	O
returns	O
data	O
with	O
its	O
original	O
semantics	O
(	O
instead	O
of	O
pictures	O
)	O
which	O
may	O
be	O
interpreted	O
,	O
extrapolated	O
,	O
etc.	O
,	O
and	O
not	O
just	O
portrayed	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Unlike	O
OGC	O
Web	O
Feature	O
Service	O
(	O
WFS	O
)	O
,	O
which	O
returns	O
discrete	O
geospatial	O
features	O
,	O
the	O
Web	B-Application
Coverage	I-Application
Service	I-Application
returns	O
coverages	B-General_Concept
representing	O
space/time	O
-varying	O
phenomena	O
that	O
relate	O
a	O
spatio-temporal	B-General_Concept
domain	O
to	O
a	O
(	O
possibly	O
multidimensional	O
)	O
range	O
of	O
properties	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
such	O
,	O
WCS	O
focuses	O
on	O
coverages	B-General_Concept
as	O
a	O
specialized	O
class	O
of	O
features	O
and	O
,	O
correspondingly	O
,	O
defines	O
streamlined	O
functionality	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
WCS	O
uses	O
the	O
coverage	O
model	O
of	O
the	O
OGC	O
GML	O
Application	O
Schema	O
for	O
Coverages	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Thus	O
,	O
WCS	O
supports	O
all	O
coverage	O
types	O
supported	O
by	O
said	O
Application	O
Schema	O
;	O
it	O
is	O
not	O
constrained	O
to	O
quadrilateral	O
grid	O
coverages	B-General_Concept
like	O
previous	O
WCS	O
versions	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
There	O
are	O
two	O
types	O
of	O
subsetting	O
,	O
which	O
can	O
be	O
combined	O
:	O
Trimming	O
extracts	O
a	O
sub-area	O
of	O
a	O
coverage	O
indicated	O
by	O
a	O
bounding	B-Algorithm
box	I-Algorithm
;	O
the	O
result	O
has	O
the	O
same	O
dimension	O
(	O
i.e.	O
,	O
number	O
of	O
axes	O
)	O
as	O
the	O
original	O
coverage	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GetCapabilities	O
:	O
delivers	O
an	O
XML-encoded	O
description	O
of	O
service	O
properties	O
and	O
the	O
data	O
holdings	O
offered	O
by	O
the	O
server	O
inquired	O
;	O
</s>
<s>
DescribeCoverage	O
:	O
delivers	O
XML-encoded	O
descriptions	O
of	O
coverages	B-General_Concept
(	O
such	O
as	O
their	O
location	O
in	O
space	O
and	O
time	O
)	O
;	O
</s>
<s>
GET/KVP	O
:	O
using	O
the	O
HTTP	O
GET	O
protocol	O
for	O
sending	O
key-value	B-Application
pair	I-Application
(	O
KVP	O
)	O
encoded	O
requests	O
and	O
receiving	O
XML	B-Protocol
metadata	O
and	O
binary	O
coverage	B-General_Concept
data	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
POST/XML	O
:	O
using	O
the	O
HTTP	B-Protocol
POST	I-Protocol
protocol	O
for	O
transferring	O
XML	B-Protocol
data	O
and	O
binary	O
coverage	B-General_Concept
data	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
SOAP/XML	O
:	O
using	O
the	O
SOAP	B-Application
protocol	O
for	O
transferring	O
XML	B-Protocol
data	O
and	O
binary	O
coverage	B-General_Concept
data	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
WCS	O
format	O
encodings	O
allow	O
to	O
deliver	O
coverages	B-General_Concept
in	O
various	O
data	O
formats	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
GML	O
,	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
,	O
HDF-EOS	B-Application
,	O
CF-netCDF	O
or	O
NITF	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
WCS-T	O
(	O
T	O
standing	O
for	O
transactional	O
)	O
establishes	O
how	O
to	O
upload	O
complete	O
coverages	B-General_Concept
to	O
a	O
server	O
or	O
modify	O
existing	O
coverages	B-General_Concept
on	O
a	O
server	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Web	B-Application
Coverage	I-Application
Processing	I-Application
Service	I-Application
(	O
WCPS	O
)	O
defines	O
flexible	O
ad-hoc	O
processing	O
and	O
filtering	O
on	O
coverage	O
sets	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
is	O
an	O
abstract	O
query	B-Protocol
language	O
(	O
like	O
SQL	B-Language
and	O
XQuery	B-Language
)	O
that	O
is	O
independent	O
from	O
any	O
other	O
OGC	O
service	O
standard	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
WCS	O
Processing	O
Extension	O
establishes	O
linkage	O
of	O
WCPS	O
into	O
the	O
WCS	O
suite	O
,	O
introducing	O
an	O
additional	O
request	O
type	O
,	O
ProcessCoverages	O
,	O
which	O
accepts	O
a	O
WCPS	O
query	B-Protocol
string	I-Protocol
and	O
returns	O
a	O
list	O
of	O
response	O
items	O
resulting	O
from	O
server-side	O
WCPS	O
evaluation	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
forthcoming	O
WCS	O
Coordinate	O
System	O
Extension	O
allows	O
retrieving	O
coverages	B-General_Concept
in	O
Coordinate	O
Reference	O
Systems	O
(	O
CRSs	O
)	O
different	O
from	O
the	O
Native	O
CRS	O
in	O
which	O
the	O
coverage	O
is	O
stored	O
on	O
the	O
server	O
-	O
in	O
other	O
words	O
,	O
it	O
allows	O
reprojection	O
.	O
</s>
