Presentation: The Palæo Data Cube: A Digital Earth of the Past Inspired by Present-day Big Earth Observations Data Practices

Presentation given during the 1st International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Student and Early Professionals (ISPRS STEP) Virtual Symposium, on October 28th 2028 (online). his poster presents the Palaeo Data Cube, which is described in the following paper: Franziskakis, F., Vérard, C., Richard, J. P., Castelltort, S., & Giuliani, G. (2026). The Palæo Data Cube: A Digital Earth of the past inspired by present-day Big Earth Observations Data practices. Big Earth Data, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/20964471.2026.2723636 Understanding the Earth’s evolution across geological timescales requires access to spatially explicit deep time datasets, yet existing palæogeographic and geodynamic products are often disseminated as isolated files with limited metadata, heterogeneous formats, and no standard mechanisms for analysis, limiting reproducibility, interoperability, and large scale comparative studies. Hereafter, we present the Palæo Data Cube (PDC), the first open framework applying concepts and technologies from modern Earth Observation data to deep time Earth system data. The PDC integrates palæogeographic reconstructions and other derived global products over 45 time steps covering the last 545 million years (Phanerozoic eon), all sharing a consistent projection, resolution, and temporal structure. The system relies entirely on open standards, combining GeoServer for spatiotemporal data access, GeoNetwork for ISO compliant metadata, and a SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) for discovery. This architecture provides a harmonized, FAIR compliant environment where users can query, visualize, and analyse deep time datasets using the same tools commonly used for present day Digital Earth platforms. The PDC enables new applications in palæoclimatology, geodynamics, and landscape evolution, while also supporting geoscience education. By establishing an open, scalable and extensible foundation, the PDC represents a major step toward a fully interoperable “Digital Earth of the past.”