}}}
= Welcome to rasdaman -- the World's Leading Array Database =
This is the website of the rasdaman ("__ras__ter __da__ta __man__ager") open-source project. Rasdaman is a domain-neutral '''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Array_DBMS Array Database System]''': it extends standard relational database systems with the ability to store and retrieve multi-dimensional raster data (''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Array arrays]'') of unlimited size through an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sql SQL]-style query language. In fact, rasdaman has pioneered Array Databases being the first fully implemented, operationally used system with an array query language and optimized processing engine.
On such '''sensor, image, simulation, and statistics data''' appearing, e.g., in '''earth, space, and life science''' [wiki:ApplicationDomains applications] rasdaman allows to quickly set up array-intensive [wiki:Features services] which are [wiki:WhyRasdaman distinguished] by their flexibility, speed, and scalability. Rasdaman embeds itself smoothly into [http://www.postgresql.org/ PostgreSQL].
[[Image(wiki:OSGeo:OSGeo_incubation.png, align=left, link=wiki:OSGeoIncubationChecklist, width=160)]]
'''Next-Generation Geo Raster Server'''. Rasdaman is brought to you by the guys writing the geo raster standards, including [http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wcs OGC WCS] and [http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wcps WCPS], the OGC raster query language. The [PetascopeUserGuide Petascope] component of rasdaman provides service interfaces based on the [http://www.opengeospatial.org OGC] [http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wcs WCS], [http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wcps WCPS], [http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wcps WCS-T], and [http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/wps/ WPS]. For several of these, rasdaman will be reference implementation. Since April 2011, rasdaman is available on the [http://live.osgeo.org/en/index.html OSGeo Live DVD] (a short [wiki:OSGeoLiveGetStarted get started guide]). A [http://www.gdal.org/ GDAL] rasdaman driver is available, and likewise a [http://mapserver.org/ MapServer] integration (beta). A [http://postgis.refractions.net/ PostGIS] query language integration is under work, see [wiki:Planning our planning]. In comparison to PostGIS Raster, rasdaman scales and supports n-D instead of 2-D and automatizes tile management.
For the '''business value''' of rasdaman, see the [http://www.ohloh.net/p/rasdaman listing on ohloh]. [http://www.earthlook.org EarthLook] is a demonstration site showcasing rasdaman in a variety of 1-D to 4-D geo use cases.
== News ==
* November 2014 -- in the final review of EU project [http://www.earthserver.eu EarthServer] (which has substantially supported rasdaman community development!) reviewers were impressed by all the achievements; among others, at the premises of the European Space Agency (ESA) a '''170 Terabyte rasdaman space/time database''' was built.
* September 2014 -- rasdaman is [http://www.copernicus-masters.com/index.php?kat=winners.html&anzeige=winner_t-systems2014.html winner of the Big Data Challenge] of the international [http://www.copernicus-masters.com/index.php?anzeige=home.html Copernicus Masters competition].
* June 2014 -- ISO SC32 WG3 (the SQL maintenance group) has agreed to establish an array extension to SQL, called MDA ("Multi-Dimensional Arrays"), based on the practice proven concepts of rasdaman.
* March 2014 -- version 9.0.1 has been released improving some issues observed during large-scale migration ([wiki:Versions#Version9.0.x release notes]).
* February 23, 2014 -- rasdaman 9.0 has been officially released, see [wiki:Versions#Version9.0.x full release notes].
* January 2014 -- several more specifications crafted by the rasdaman team get adopted as official standards: WCS Scaling Extension, WCS Interpolation Extension, WCS Earth Observation Application Profile.
* December 16, 2013 -- the WCS Range Subsetting Extension, crafted by the rasdaman team, gets adopted as official OGC standard.
* '''December 06, 2013 -- rasdaman is OGC's official Reference Implementation for WCS Core''':
[[BR]][[BR]][[Image(rasdaman-wcs-core-RI.png, width=600)]][[BR]][[BR]]
* April 11, 2013 -- rasdaman PI Peter Baumann gives keynote lecture "Data, Metadata - Who Cares?" at [http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2013/sessionprogramme/KL EGU General Assembly], Vienna
* January 07, 2013 -- rasdaman becomes [http://geossregistries.info/geosspub/resource_details.jsp?compId=urn:geoss:csr:resource:urn:uuid:28063c64-b187-9336-8cf2-d01bead9304b GEOSS component]
* [wiki:News more news...]
== Download, Installation, Documentation ==
Go to the [wiki:Download Download page] for instructions. The installation steps are described on the [wiki:Install Install page]. There is ample [wiki:Documentation documentation], including query and programming examples (check out our [Workshops/BigDataRasdamanApproach tutorial] on spatio-temporal data with rasdaman too).
== Support ==
The [http://www.jacobs-university.de/lsis Large-Scale Scientific Information Services research group] at [http://www.jacobs-university.de Jacobs University Bremen] is the core development team. Feel free to contact us!
A dedicated research spin-off company, [http://www.rasdaman.com rasdaman GmbH], provides software enhancements, expert consultancy, participation in projects, and joint ventures on a commercial basis to foster widespread use of rasdaman.
See also the [wiki:Support support page].
== Science ==
Interested in the scientific background? There is a [http://kahlua.eecs.jacobs-university.de/~lsis/publications.php host of publications] available.
== PS: Greetings to all [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastafari_movement rastafarians]! ''wha'ppen, man?'' ==
