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Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Mapping Service (WMS)
OGC WMS Support | OGC WMS Servers | Additional Website Listings
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has defined Web Mapping Service (WMS) specification protocols for the transfer of geospatial data from servers to client applications. A Web Map Service (WMS) produces an image (e.g. GIF, JPG) of geospatial data.
OGC WMS gives clients access to an image of data without storing a local copy of the dataset. Using a specially structured http request, you can call a dataset (eg. orthoimagery, highways) into your GIS software application.
Receiving an image of the data works well for imagery and other raster data, but means that standard GIS analysis is not feasible using WMS. Web Feature Services (WFS) protocols, on the other hand, do support actual data feature transfer, but very few services currently exist.
LandSat 7 composite from gisdata.usgs.net WMS, overlaid by NEXRAD radar from Iowa State; March 16, 2005.
OGC WMS Support
List of OGC WMS Servers
To connect to a WMS, select and copy a link below and paste the link where your software asks to specify a WMS URL. If using ArcGIS Interoperability Tools, this will be the "Add WMS Data" window. After you've pasted the URL, click the "Get List" button to see the layers available. More extensive help documentation is available with your software.
Note: This list is still very much a work in progress. Until better search methods are in place, listing WMS sites in this way is the best method for discovering and using WMS. Please send any corrections or additions to Data Services.
| Link | Data Desc. | Info | Extent |
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| terraservice.net WMS Capabilities | High res. urban orthophotos, DRGs, DOQQs | Info | US |
| USGS data Go to http://gisdata.usgs.net Click "Map Services" in the menu, and select a theme of interest. On the next pages, right click on the "WMS Capabilities" links to copy | Wide range of data in these themes: Boundaries
Elevation
Hydrography
Land Cover
Orthoimagery
Places
Transportation
Reference | Info | US |
| http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wms/comprad.php? | NEXRAD radar | Info | US |
http://www.geographynetwork.com/
servlet/com.esri.wms.Esrimap? | Various vector and raster datasets from ESRI | Info | Global |
| http://clearinghouse1.fgdc.gov/scripts/ogc/ms.pl? | DCW data | | Global |
| http://globe.digitalearth.gov/viz-bin/wmt.cgi? | Many Environmental layers | Info | Global |
| http://www2.demis.nl/mapserver/Request.asp? | General data | Info | Global |
Additional Website Listings
Finding additional WMS services
"For additional WMS services, search the Geography Network ( http://www.geographynetwork.com ) or the Geospatial One-Stop Web site ( http://www.geodata.gov ). On either site, search for content type = "Live Data & Maps" and specify "WMS" as the keyword. In the search results, click Details next to any WMS service entry and copy the URL found at the bottom of the Details listing.
"Note that the URLs for WMS services that you find on the Web may not end with the ? or & character required by ArcGIS as described at the beginning of this document. In this case, add the appropriate character at the end of the URL manually after pasting it into the Add WMS Server dialog. Add the ? character, unless the URL contains a = sign, in which case add the & character."
ESRI. About OGC WMS support in ArcGIS Desktop 9.0, November 2004. http://eusoils.jrc.it/wms/Documents/ArcGIS-90sp2-WMS-spt.pdf, Page 10.
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