Glossary

API

Application Programming Interface

ASI

Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (Italian Space Agency)

EO

Earth Observation

ESA

European Space Agency

GDAL

Geo-spatial Data Abstraction Library

GeoTIFF

Is a public domain metadata standard which allows georeferencing information to be embedded within a TIFF file. The potential additional information includes projections, coordinate systems, ellipsoids, datums, and everything else necessary to establish the exact spatial reference for the file. The GeoTIFF format is fully compliant with TIFF 6.0, so software incapable of reading and interpreting the specialized metadata will still be able to open a GeoTIFF file.

GIF

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is limited to an 8-bit palette, or 256 colors. This makes the GIF format suitable for storing graphics with relatively few colors such as simple diagrams, shapes, logos and cartoon style images. The GIF format supports animation and is still widely used to provide image animation effects. It also uses a lossless compression that is more effective when large areas have a single color, and ineffective for detailed images or dithered images.

GIS

A geographic information system (GIS), or geographical information system captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data that is linked to location.

GPS

Global Positioning System

GSDView

Geo Spatial Data Viewer

GUI

Graphical User Interface

HDF5

Hierarchical Data Format, commonly abbreviated HDF, HDF4, or HDF5 is the name of a set of file formats and libraries designed to store and organize large amounts of numerical data. Originally developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, it is currently supported by the non-profit HDF Group, whose mission is to ensure continued development of HDF5 technologies, and the continued accessibility of data currently stored in HDF.

HW

Hardware

InSAR

Interferometric SAR

IRF

Impulse Response Function

ISLR

Integrated Side Lobe Ratio

JPEG

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a compression method; JPEG-compressed images are usually stored in the JFIF (JPEG File Interchange Format) file format. JPEG compression is (in most cases) lossy compression. The JPEG/JFIF filename extension in DOS is JPG (other operating systems may use JPEG). Nearly every digital camera can save images in the JPEG/JFIF format, which supports 8 bits per color (red, green, blue) for a 24-bit total, producing relatively small files. When not too great, the compression does not noticeably detract from the image’s quality, but JPEG files suffer generational degradation when repeatedly edited and saved. Photographic images may be better stored in a lossless non-JPEG format if they will be re-edited, or if small “artifacts” (blemishes caused by the JPEG’s compression algorithm) are unacceptable. The JPEG/JFIF format also is used as the image compression algorithm in many Adobe PDF files.

MDI

Multiple Document Interface. Graphical computer applications with a multiple document interface are those whose windows reside under a single parent window (usually with the exception of modal windows), as opposed to all windows being separate from each other (single document interface).

Metadata

Ancillaty information that togeter with the image data form an EO product

N/A

Not Applicable

OTB

Orfeo ToolBox

PNG

The PNG (Portable Network Graphics) file format was created as the free, open-source successor to the GIF. The PNG file format supports truecolor (16 million colors) while the GIF supports only 256 colors. The PNG file excels when the image has large, uniformly colored areas. The lossless PNG format is best suited for editing pictures, and the lossy formats, like JPG, are best for the final distribution of photographic images, because JPG files are smaller than PNG files.

Product (EO)

An EO product is a file (or a set of files) containing both imagery and realted metadata. There is not an unique way to distribute EO data, instead each mission has its own standards and product specification.

Todo

rewrite

PSLR

Peak Side Lobe Ratio

QA

Quality Analysis

SAR

Synthetic Aperture Radar

SLC

Single Look Complex

SSLR

Spurious Side Lobe Ratio

SW

Software

SWB

SAR WorkBench

TBW

To be Written

TIFF

The TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) format is a flexible format that normally saves 8 bits or 16 bits per color (red, green, blue) for 24-bit and 48-bit totals, respectively, usually using either the TIFF or TIF filename extension.

UGS

User Ground Segment