AutoTerrain is a GCT SCOTS AGIW that autonomously extracts a terrain surface from photogrammetrically paired stereo images with corresponding metadata and a sensor model described in SensorML. A terrain surface is comprised of elevations points or postings extracted from the overlapping regions of two (stereo) paired images. These elevations can be compared with reference terrain surfaces, such as those provided by DTED or SRTM data to describe local vertical obstruction heights and other localized variations. 

As a compliant EGI-SOA component workflow, AutoTerrain can automatically select and extract a terrain surface from any corresponding stereo image pairs managed within the SDI. This can include images collected form different sources at different times. AutoTerrain utilizes web service interfaces to communicate with other EGI-SOA components, such as the Catalog and SDI. CS-W services are used to interface with the Catalog; WCS services are used to access SDI products; WCS services chained to the AutoTransform workflow are used to ETL the resultant terrain surface into the SDI.