Chinese Scientists Develop Revolutionary Multi-Dimensional Data Format for Remote Sensing

On November 4, 2024, the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences introduced the multi-dimensional data (MDD) format, an innovative data format for remote sensing that has been awarded an international PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) patent. Led by AIR researcher ZHANG Lifu and funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the MDD format marks a significant step forward in multi-source remote sensing data storage and analysis.

Remote sensing data formats are essential for storing, organizing, and managing imagery and data collected by satellites and sensors. Traditional remote sensing datasets commonly use file formats such as GeoTIFF (Tagged Image File Format) and HDF (Hierarchical Data Format) as their core storage units. These formats often rely on complex data structures, such as trees or linked lists, to organize information. However, because most standard remote sensing formats are built on a three-dimensional cube model, they can be difficult to use for analyzing data sequences over long time periods.

After more than a decade of dedicated work, Zhang's team at AIR has become the first in the world to develop a fully integrated approach to managing multi-dimensional spatial-temporal-spectral data. This approach unifies spatial, temporal, and spectral data into a single format, making data organization, visualization, and extraction more streamlined than ever. The new MDD format brings remarkable gains in efficiency and accuracy to remote sensing analysis.

For instance, a team led by Professor FU Bojie, a CAS Academician, leveraged this format to develop a global surface soil moisture dataset, spanning 16 years of data from 2003 to 2018. With a spatial resolution of 0.1° and a temporal resolution of ten days, the dataset is efficiently organized into just 16 files, with each year's data contained in a single file. This streamlined structure significantly enhances data management, making it an invaluable resource for long-term soil moisture analysis.

The MDD format has also received high praise from leading experts in remote sensing. LI Deren, recipient of China's highest honor in science and technology in 2023, described MDD as "a major theoretical and technical innovation for the international remote sensing community." Chien-I Chang, an IEEE Fellow and professor at the University of Maryland, commended Professor Zhang for "breaking through the bottleneck of fusing temporal, spatial and spectral information",  noting that its impact is "tremendous." Antonio J. Plaza, IEEE Fellow and former editor of IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, highlighted its dual value, called it "a remarkable contribution with both outstanding research significance and practical applications in real world studies".