The <Summary> field provides a brief description of the service along with the purpose of the service. This allows potential users to determine if the service is useful for their needs. The <Summary> field consists of:

• <Abstract> A brief description of the service.
• <Purpose> The purpose of the service.

The following are suggestions to populate the <Abstract> field:

• Summarize/describe the service.
• Capitalization should follow standard constructs. For readability, all capital letters or all lower case letters should not be used. Use the appropriate case where applicable.
• Acronyms should be expanded to provide understanding.
• The <Abstract> may contain tabular information.
• URLs will be automatically hyperlinked.
• Where applicable, the <Abstract> should also include brief statements on the following information:
• Service organization (description of how services/software are organized within and by file).
• Methodology or analytical tools.
• Intended use of the service.
• Other pertinent information.

The following are suggestions to populate the <Purpose> field:

• Describe the purpose of the service for the scientific community.
• Capitalization should follow standard constructs. For readability, all capital letters or all lower case letters should not be used. Use the appropriate case where applicable.
• Acronyms should be expanded to provide understanding.

</Summary>

• Multiple lines of text are allowed for the <Abstract> and <Purpose> fields and may contain characters from the UTF-8 character set.

• The <Summary> field is required and may not be repeated.
• The <Abstract> field is required and may not be repeated.
• The <Purpose> field is optional and may not be repeated.

<Summary>
<Abstract>
VISTAS Visual Data Probe will allow users to "navigate" the data by specifying which parameters on the dates they would like to visually examine. They will be able to perform basic image processing functions that will facilitate visual evaluation of the data.
</Abstract>
<Purpose>
The purpose of VISTAS is to provide users who have gained access to TOVS Pathfinder data the ability to easily and quickly browse these large datasets without having to write their own data-handling programs.
</Purpose>
</Summary>

Example of the <Summary> field with only the <Abstract>:

<Summary>
<Abstract>
MapViewer is a mapping and spatial analysis tool that allows you to produce publication-quality thematic maps easily. A thematic map visually represents the geographic distribution of your data.

MapViewer will help you to:
-understand demographics
-define sales or insurance territories
-outline marketing strategies
-track population trends
-show ecological distribution
-display any geographically distributed data

With MapViewer, you are not limited to the boundaries and data included in the program. You can import boundary files and data files in a number of formats to create truly customized maps.
</Abstract>
</Summary>