Abstract:
DIAL is a WWW based data distribution system. It allows data providers to
easily serve their Earth science data directly to their users. DIAL provides
traditional catalog services like metadata search, while also providing
extended interactive data services like browsing, subsetting, subsampling,
reformatting and direct downloading. The power of DIAL
... has recently been
enhanced by the addition of the EOSDIS "Version 0" protocol, which enables a
project to set up a distributed system of DIAL servers.
DIAL supports Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) and HDF for EOS (HDF-EOS)
formatted datasets. DIAL also provides interoperability with GIS systems
through traslators.
DIAL software has been tested using Netscape 4.0.5, 4.0.6 and MS Internet
Explorer 4.0 (It should work with later versions of the browsers.)
Data providers can choose any of the following different ways to distibute
scientific data and provide data services:
- Direct Access
- Quick View (Transient Area)
- Local Search
- Distributed Search
http://laits.gmu.edu/dial_index.html 
