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Communicating with a WCS service in a web browser

A web browser is the simplest client of a WCS service. WCS requests can be issued through HTTP, and the responses or exceptions are returned through the browser. WCS services support three operations: GetCapabilities, DescribeCoverage, and GetCoverage. Through URL parameters, a client can use these operations to obtain service metadata, coverage information, and coverages from the WCS service. These operations and parameters are detailed in the OGC WCS specification.

ArcGIS for Desktop can act as a client for WCS services. A WCS coverage can be displayed in ArcMap (similar to a raster layer), exported to a raster dataset using the Export Data dialog box, and consumed by geoprocessing tools that take a raster layer as input. To learn more, see Adding a WCS service to ArcMap.

Additionally, many third-party applications are available for working with WCS and other OGC services.

Below are examples of requests to ArcGIS Server WCS services using a web browser.

GetCapabilities

This request will return all service-level metadata and a brief description of the data in GML format.

Examples

WCS 1.0.0: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/World/Temperature/ImageServer/WCSServer?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=GETCAPABILITIES

WCS 2.0.1: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/demo/OceanModel_HYCOM/ImageServer/WCSServer?request=GetCapabilities&service=WCS&version=2.0.1

DescribeCoverage

This request will return a full description of one or more coverages within the service in GML format.

Examples

WCS 1.0.0: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/World/Temperature/ImageServer/WCSServer?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=DescribeCoverage&COVERAGE=1

WCS 2.0.1: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/demo/OceanModel_HYCOM/ImageServer/WCSServer?request=DescribeCoverage&service=WCS&version=2.0.1&coverageid=Coverage1

GetCoverage

This request will return a coverage in one of the supported formats: GeoTIFF, NITF, HDF, JPEG, JPEG2000, and PNG: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/Earthquakes/CaliforniaDEM/ImageServer/WCSServer?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.1.1&REQUEST=GetCoverage&IDENTIFIER=1&FORMAT=image/GeoTIFF&BOUNDINGBOX=-13845885.5590586,3812317.53467798,-12705764.6522576,5131267.73075641,urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::54004&RangeSubset=Field_1:nearest[BAND[1]]&GridBaseCRS=urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::54004&GridCS=urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::54004&GridType=urn:ogc:def:method:WCS:1.1:2dGridIn2dCrs&GridOrigin=-13845885.5590586,5131267.73075641&GridOffsets=2879.09319899244,-2879.80392156863

Time and images examples

For WCS services originating from mosaic datasets, TIME and IMAGES parameters can be added:

Time

TIME—Supports time queries by specifying a time instance or time range. The format can be YYYYMMDDHHMMSS, YYYYMMDD, YYYYMM, or YYYY.

TIME=1999 (time at year 1999): http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/folder/service/ImageServer/WCSServer?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=GetCoverage&COVERAGE=1&FORMAT=GeoTIFF&BBOX=-180,-55.5,180,83.5&WIDTH=720&HEIGHT=278&CRS=EPSG:4326&INTERPOLATION=nearest%20neighbor&Band=1,2,3&TIME=1999

TIME=1980/2010 (time from year 1980 to 2010): http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/folder/service/ImageServer/WCSServer?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=GetCoverage&COVERAGE=1&FORMAT=GeoTIFF&BBOX=-180,-55.5,180,83.5&WIDTH=720&HEIGHT=278&CRS=EPSG:4326&INTERPOLATION=nearest%20neighbor&Band=1,2,3&TIME=1980/2010

TIME=1999-12-31T14:30:30/2000-01-01T14:30:30: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/folder/service/ImageServer/WCSServer?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=GetCoverage&COVERAGE=1&FORMAT=GeoTIFF&BBOX=-180,-55.5,180,83.5&WIDTH=720&HEIGHT=278&CRS=EPSG:4326&INTERPOLATION=nearest%20neighbor&Band=1,2,3&TIME=1999-12-31T14:30:30/2000-01-01T14:30:30

This will request a slice of salinity data in GeoTIFF format; the data covers -20 ~ 20 latitude/longitude and at a particular time and z: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/demo/OceanModel_HYCOM/ImageServer/WCSServer?request=GetCoverage&service=WCS&version=2.0.1&coverageId=coverage1&scalefactor=2&rangesubset=salinity&subset=y,http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326(-20,20)&subset=x,http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326(-20,20)&subset=StdTime,http://www.opengis.net(2014/04/07 00:00:00)&subset=StdZ,http://www.opengis.net(0)&format=image/tiff

This will request a slice of salinity data in GMLCoverage format (tuplelist, pixels are arranged using BIP); the data covers -20 ~ 20 latitude/longitude and at a particular time and z: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/demo/OceanModel_HYCOM/ImageServer/WCSServer?request=GetCoverage&service=WCS&version=2.0.1&coverageId=coverage1&scalefactor=2&rangesubset=salinity&subset=y,http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326(-20,20)&subset=x,http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4326(-20,20)&subset=StdTime,http://www.opengis.net(2014/04/07 00:00:00)&subset=StdZ,http://www.opengis.net(0)&format=BIP

Images

IMAGES—Supports query of individual rasters.

WCS 1.0.0: http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/World/Temperature/ImageServer/WCSServer?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=GetCoverage&COVERAGE=1&FORMAT=GeoTIFF&BBOX=-180,-55.5,180,83.5&WIDTH=720&HEIGHT=278&CRS=EPSG:4326&INTERPOLATION=nearest%20neighbor&Band=1,2,3&Images=8

IMAGES=1,2 (where the numbers are the object IDs of the image service catalog table): http://gisserver.domain.com:6080/arcgis/services/World/Temperature/ImageServer/WCSServer?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=1.0.0&REQUEST=GetCoverage&COVERAGE=1&FORMAT=GeoTIFF&BBOX=-180,-55.5,180,83.5&WIDTH=720&HEIGHT=278&CRS=EPSG:4326&INTERPOLATION=nearest%20neighbor&Band=1,2,3&Images=8,9