Web Coverage Processing Service

This raster query language allows clients to obtain original coverage data, or derived information, in a platform-neutral manner over the Web.

In particular, the formally defined syntax and semantics make WCPS amenable to program-generated queries and automatic service chaining.

[3] Currently, WCPS is constrained to multi-dimensional raster data, but an activity is under work in OGC to extend it to all coverage types, i.e., digital geospatial information representing space-varying phenomena as defined in OGC Abstract Specification Topic 6: Schema for Coverage Geometry and Functions[4] (which is identical to ISO 19123) and refined to a concrete, interoperable model in the OGC GML 3.2.1 Application Schema - Coverages (GMLCOV) Standard.

The WCPS syntax tentatively has been crafted close to the XQuery language – as metadata more and more are established in XML, and OGC heavily relies on XML (such as Geography Markup Language), it is anticipated that eventually a combination of XQuery and WCPS will be established.

Still, algorithms like classification, filter kernels and general convolutions, histograms, and Discrete Fourier Transform are expressible.