Lexicon
Definitions
Acquisition
Acquisition describes the complete process from and including sensing via optional on-board recording, downlink and reception, up to the reconstruction of instrument source packets on ground. See also acquisition planning.
Acquisition Date
Date of data acquisition. Note that in 24 hours the satellite describes several orbits: about 14 orbits per day for ERS-2, ENVISAT and Landsat 7.
Acquisition Station
A facility for acquiring satellite data and in some cases for archiving and performing production and shipment on demand. Data can be acquired only when the satellite (or the Data Relay Satellite) is seen by the station.
Area Of Interest
Geographic area relevant for the process. In its more general form it can be defined for example as one or more (or a combination of):
- rectangle (usually with sides aligned with the latitude / longitude grid)
- circle
- polygon
- name (of a site, a region, a country, a town, a river, etc., or of multiple sites together, like volcanoes)
Ascending Node
The point at which the satellite nadir crosses the Equator moving from South to North. (see Orbit)
Ascending Pass
See Satellite Pass.
Azimuth
The along-track direction.
Also scene size in the along-track direction.
Background Mission
A set of systematically implemented payload data acquisition rules. Examples of background missions are areas to be covered during specific periods of the year, like fields during the growing season, poles during ice formation, iceberg source areas during melting periods, etc. A background mission can also be linked to the acquisition campaign of a station, particularly for mobile stations.BaselineA configuration item that has been formally reviewed and agreed upon, that thereafter serves as a basis for further development, and that can be changed only through formal change control procedures.
Baseline (Intererometric)
In the context of interferometry, the distance between equivalent points in two orbits of the same or different satellites. This value varies along the orbit, depending on orbital parameters and orbit perturbations. Can be decomposed in perpendicular and parallel values. Also used for selecting pairs of frames best suited to specific applications. In case of Tandem acquisitions it represent the distance between the position of ERS-1 and ERS-2 with one-day interval.
Cycle
The cycle is the period, in orbits or days, before the satellite will repeat the same coverage.
Data Product
The result of the processing of remote sensing data. Products are specific to each mission and sensor combinations. A data product can be an entire acquisition strip (the data segment continuously acquired by a ground station) or a single frame (a subset of the acquisition strip of standard length as defined by the WRS).
Data Set
Collection of EO products responding to the needs of a GMES Service Project. A Data Set is typically composed by products from several missions, gathered together to respond to the overall coverage or revisit requirements from the services.
Datum
A horizontal plane from which heights and depths are measured.
Descending Node
The point at which the satellite nadir crosses the Equator moving from North to South (see Orbit).
Descending Pass
See Satellite Pass.
Drifting Mission
A mission with the satellite orbit, on purpose or by chance, not tightly controlled. It causes the area seen by its instruments to continuously shift (its coverage is not repetitive).
Frame
Represents the standard unit of data as defined, for that Mission / Sensor, by the WRS, which specifies the size and location of each frame and its identification number. For a given mission, the same frame number means frames at the same Latitude.
In the inventory it is described by a set of attributes, which have validity for the entire scene / frame (e.g.: quality) or for a subset of it (e.g.: cloud coverage in Landsat scenes, which is provided for each quarter of the scene).
Function
In the context of EO, a set of SW modules and algorithms allowing to implement complex data transformations, manipulations, elaborations, conversions, and of procedures implementing common methodologies and rules, defined or provided to enable, facilitate or control access to Services. Functions can include as necessary also non-EO data and the methods for accessing these data. A Function can be seen as a single black box providing a predefined set of functionalities.
Geographic Site
See Area Of Interest.
Ground Facility
Combination of elements required by a ground operations organization to perform an operational task. It can be a co-located set of elements – often the elements of a system domain - configured for one or several missions
Ground Range
The perpendicular distance from the ground track to a given object on the Earth's surface.
Ground Segment
Hardware and software Infrastructure with the function to permit satellite mission(s) operations. Usually includes Mission/Orbit and Attitude Control, Mission/Payload Planning, Data acquisition, Transfer, Processing, Archiving and Dissemination.
Ground Station
See Acquisition Station.
Ground Track
See Track.
Heterogeneous Data
Include structured / unstructured multi-media, multi-discipline EO related data, products, information and knowledge in computer compatible format.
Heterogeneous Data Handling
The set of functionalities permitting to ingest, archive, maintain, preserve, search, retrieve, recondition, deliver to users and exchange with other facilities Heterogeneous Data.
Hierarchical Data Format
The Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) is a library and platform independent data format for scientific data exchange and storage.. It was developed and supported by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications(NCSA). The earlier HDF4 is both a physical file format for storing scientific data and a collection of utilities and applications for manipulating, viewing, and analysing scientific data. The more recent HDF5 is a new design and implementation, intended to eliminate the limitations of HDF4 and provide new, high-performance features.
Infrastructure
(Source: Gartner Group Glossary) The underlying technological components that comprise an organisation's systems architecture. The seven components of IT infrastructure are hardware, operating system, network, database, development environment, user interface and application.
Interferometry
Technique based on comparing the phase information returned with the radar signal from two or more acquisitions. With a precise knowledge of the orbit it permits to detect changes on Earth with a resolution in the centimetre range.
Inventory
Collection of items identically structured and providing values of attributes pertinent to that collection. EO inventories contain attributes like orbit/frame number, frame corner co-ordinates, acquisition time, quality, etc.
Instrument
An on-board equipment for data sensing.
Middleware
The term groups software modules provided for enabling, facilitating or controlling access to Functions. Middleware can act in a distributed way across the network and is part of the Infrastructure.
Mission
A given satellite (e.g. ERS-1) with all its sensors.
Mission Phase
A time period during which a mission is operated with a specific set of characteristics, including orbital parameters, sensor settings, priorities for the various sensing activities.
Mission / Sensor
Since a mission can have on board more than one sensor, some possibly operated in more than one mode, only the combination of Mission / Sensor or Mission / Sensor / Mode identifies exactly the related data set.
Mission / Sensor / Mode
See Mission / Sensor.
Mode
A sensor and its on-board electronics can be operated in various modes (e.g. view angle, data compression method, etc.).
Nadir
The projection of the satellite position on the Earth surface.
Node
As a satellite orbits the Earth, it crosses the Equator twice per orbit: once going North (Ascending Node) and once going South (Descending Node).
A node can also represent further divisions of the orbit according to the applicable World Reference System. For example, 7200 nodes have been defined for ERS, with node 0 being the ascending node and node 7199 being the last node before the start of next orbit (i.e. before next ascending node).
Orbit
A revolution of the satellite from one ascending node to the next one. For ERS, the orbit duration is about 6000 seconds. The first quarter of the orbit (from the ascending node up to the point closest to the North pole) is ascending, the next two quarters (down to the South pole) are descending, and the last quarter (up to the next ascending node) is ascending.
Orbit Node
See Node.
Pass
A satellite orbit is split in two parts: the ascending pass and the descending pass.
Payload Data Exploitation
Payload Data Exploitation refers to the activities associated with the operation of ground segment infrastructures and facilities, the provision of related data and information to user communities, and the stimulation of and the support to applications, services and data utilisation. The processes involved refer to Satellite Payload Scheduling, Data Acquisition and Archiving, Data and Information Processing and Distribution, User Information Services, Applications and Services Support. All processes might require the involvement of Data Management and Telematic systems.
Path
After one complete cycle, the satellite starts to acquire the same scenes over again as it covers the same area on the Earth (same path number). Within each cycle, the orbits are numbered by the WRS according to their progressive coverage of the Earth (that is regardless of their sequence in time).
Phase
A contiguous set of orbits with the same mission characteristics (satellite orbital parameters, but also mission objectives).
Product
See Data Product.
Radar Swath
Width of the imaged scene in the range dimension, measured either in ground range or in slant range.
Range
Line of sight distance between the sensor and the target.
Also the width of the scene swath (usually perpendicular to the flight direction).
Raw Data
The data received on ground from the satellite prior to the application of any data processing algorithm.
Region Of Interest
See Area Of Interest.
Row
See Frame.
RTD Projects
RTD Projects group a set of tasks aimed at feasibility analysis or at prototyping systems or sub-systems in technologically advanced areas and are normally managed through contracts.
RTD Packages
RTD Packages are usually limited study or research activities controlled through work packages, which are normally part of an ad hoc or a wider consultancy contract.
Satellite Cycle
See Cycle.
Satellite Nadir
See Nadir.
Satellite Pass
See Pass.
Satellite Path
See Path.
Satellite Phase
See Phase.
Satellite Track
See Path.
Scene
See Frame.
Sensor
An on-board instrument or a subset of it. It includes limb looking, forwards, backwards and side-wards steerable sensors.
Sensor Swath
See Swath.
Service
A Service is the repeated, regulated (usually by means of a Service Level Agreement) and agreed (via contract or agreement) or declared (with defined quality parameters) exploitation (for commercial or non-commercial purposes) of a function, processor or application. The output of a service includes data, products, information and solutions.
Slant Range
See Range.
Scene Status
Possible statuses for a scene are:
- Available - data already acquired and stored
- Planned - data are planned for acquisition
- Visible - when the scene is visible by a station and could be planned
Small Mission
Small (Satellite) Mission can be characterised (in respect to traditional missions) by:
- Reduced life cycle and costs
- Carrying less instruments and more specific to given applications
- More likely to fly in cluster with more frequent revisiting time
- Supporting both autonomous and automation concepts
Steerable Sensor
Sensor which can be moved with telecommands from its nominal pointing angle, in order to acquire data with different view angles or from areas not under the satellite nadir.
Strip
A continuous sequence of data acquisition by a ground station (and therefore made of more scenes / frames). To be noted that the sensor can be continuously on even when crossing stations' visibility. Therefore one station will acquire one part of the data and another station another part of the data. The two strips might partially or fully overlap.
Swath
The width of the track on Earth of the sensor view angle.
Tandem Mission
During this combined mission phase, ERS-1 and ERS-2 were placed on the same orbit with one day difference and acquiring as much as possible data on the same areas.
Thematic Map / Category
A Thematic Map is a collection of georeferenced categories or values. Examples are Thematic Maps of vegetation type, cloudiness and precipitation, which provide the Categories (i.e. respectively the vegetation type, and values of mean annual cloudiness percentage, and mean annual precipitation) for a given area, suitably tiled (each cell might be 1 sq deg or of another size).
Time Line Display
Representation over time of events. Examples can be the scheduled activities represented by a signal in the y-axis against the time in the x-axis (the signal is normally zero and takes a value different from zero or changes colour when the activity is scheduled).
Track
See Path.
World Reference System
In the context of EO, a reference system describing the ground coverage of sensors and products in a system formed by the ground track of the satellite and its subdivision into frames. A WRS is mostly a user interface aspect. However, using it in the internal inventory representation simplifies overall data handling, avoiding reference to precise data sensing time and permitting also to define attributes with values changing along the orbit (e.g.: quality, cloud coverage, etc.).
3D/4D Data
Loosely used to describe data that can be arranged or displayed in a 3D space, like Digital Elevation Models, geospatial, georeferenced, atmospheric, meteorological and Earth Observation instruments' data. The forth dimension usually refers to time.
Further definitions are vailable here
Acronyms, Abbreviations
| ACRONYM | MEANING |
| AD | Applicable Document |
| ADD | Architectural Design Document |
| ADEOS | Advanced Earth Observing Satellite |
| ADR | Architectural Design Review |
| AGF | Advanced Ground Facility |
| AIP | Archival Information Package |
| AIS | Advanced Inventory Server |
| AMOR | Automated MOnitoring, control and Reporting tools for distributed facilities |
| AMS | Archive Management System |
| ANSI | American National Standards Institute |
| AOI | Area Of Interest |
| AOS | Acquisition Of Signal |
| AR | Acceptance Review |
| ASAR | Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar |
| ASP | Application Service Provider |
| ATS | Acceptance Test Specification |
| AVHRR | Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer |
| B2B | Business to Business |
| BDS | Browse Data Server |
| BSSC | ESA's Board for Software Standardisation and Control |
| CA | Control Authority |
| CAID | Control Authority Identifier |
| CAN | Content Aware Network |
| CAO | Control Authority Office |
| CAOS | Control Authority Office System |
| CAVE | Cave Automatic Virtual Environment |
| CBIR | Content-Based Image Retrieval |
| CCF | Computer Compatible Format |
| CCN | Contract Change Notice |
| CCSDS | Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems |
| CD-ROM | Compact Disk Read Only Memory |
| CDR | Critical Design Review |
| CEOS | Committee on Earth Observation Satellites |
| CFC | Customer Furnished Component |
| CFI | Customer Furnished Item |
| CIDL | · Configuration Items Data List |
| CIP | Catalogue Interoperability Protocol |
| CORBA | Common Object Request Broker Architecture |
| COTS | Commercial Off The Shelf |
| DBMS | Data Base Management System |
| DDD | Detailed Design Document |
| DDF | Design Definition File |
| DDU | Data Description Unit |
| DED | Data Entity Dictionaries |
| DEDSL | Data Entity Description Specification Language |
| DEM | Digital Elevation Model |
| DIP | Dissemination Information Package |
| DJF | Design Justification File |
| DLR | German Aerospace Center |
| DPMD | Detailed Processing Model Document |
| DRS | Data Relay Satellite |
| DSS | Decision Support System |
| DVB | Digital Video Broadcasting |
| DW | Data Warehouse |
| ECMWF | European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast |
| ECSS | European Cooperation for Space Standardisation |
| EJB | Enterprise Java Beans |
| EMITS | ESA's Electronic Mail Invitation to Tender System |
| EMMCF | ESRIN Multi-Mission? Central Facility |
| ENVISAT | ENVironmental SATellite |
| EO | Earth Observation |
| EOAD | Earth Observation Applications Department |
| EOEP | Earth Observation Envelope Programme |
| EOP | Earth Observation Programme (ESA Directorate) |
| EOP-A | Earth Observation Programme - Applications Department |
| ERB | EOAD RTD Board |
| ERS | European Remote Sensing satellite |
| ESA | European Space Agency |
| ESRIN | European Space Research INstitute |
| ESTMP | European Space Technology Master Plan |
| EVA | ESA Versatile Archive |
| FAQ | Frequently Asked Question |
| FDIR | Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery |
| FEP | Front End Processing |
| FOC | Fire Observation Constellation / Fuego Onset Constellation |
| FP | Final Presentation |
| fPAR | fraction of Photo Absorbed Radiation |
| GEOTIFF | Tagged Image File Format with geographic metadata |
| GIP | Gateway Interoperable Protocol (MUIS) |
| GIS | Geographic Information System |
| GMES | Global Monitoring for Environment and Security |
| GPRS | General Packet Radio Service |
| GS | Ground Segment |
| GSFC | Goddard Space Flight Center |
| GSP | General Studies Programme |
| GSTP | General Support Technology Programme |
| GUI | Graphical User Interface |
| HCMM | Heat Capacity |
| HMI | Human-Machine Interface |
| HTML | Hyper Text Mark-up Language |
| HTTP | Hyper Text Transfer Protocol |
| HW | Hardware |
| IAB | Implementation Approval Board |
| ICD | Interface Control Document |
| IDS | Inventory Data Server |
| IRS | Indian Remote Sensing Satellite |
| ISI | Internet Storage Infrastructure |
| ITS | Integration Test Specification |
| ITT | Invitation To Tender |
| JERS | Japanese Remote Sensing Satellite |
| JRC | Joint Research Centre |
| LAI | Leaf Area Index |
| LAN | Local Area Network |
| LOS | Loss Of Signal. Line of Sight |
| LST | Land Surface Temperature |
| MACAO | Member Agency Control Authority Office |
| MMI | Man-Machine Interface |
| MOP | Mission Operation Plan |
| MOTS | Modifiable Off The Shelf |
| MSG | Meteosat Second Generation |
| MUIS | Multi-Mission User Information Services |
| N/A | Not Applicable |
| NAS | Network Attached Storage |
| NASA | National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
| NCR | · Non Conformance Report |
| NDVI | Normalised Deviation Vegetation Index |
| NJPL | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| NOAA | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |
| NPP | Net Primary Productivity |
| NSSDC | National Space Science Data Center |
| NUARS | NASA Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite project |
| OAIS | Open Archival Information System |
| OSP | Orbit Swath Propagator |
| PA | Product Assurance |
| PAC | Processing and Archiving Centre |
| PAF | Processing and Archiving Facility |
| PDCC | Payload Data Control Centre |
| Portable Document Format | |
| PDHS | Payload Data Handling Station |
| PDR | Preliminary Design Review |
| PDS | Payload Data Segment |
| PMP | Project Management Plan |
| QA | Quality Assurance |
| QMS | Quality Management System |
| QoS | Quality of Service |
| QP | Quality Plan |
| RB | Requirements Baseline |
| RD | Reference Document |
| RDBMS | Relational Database Management System |
| RF | Radio Frequency |
| RID | Review Item Discrepancy |
| RISC | Reduced Instruction Set Computer |
| ROI | Region Of Interest |
| RS | Remote Sensing |
| RTD | Research and Technology Development |
| RTM | Requirements Traceability Matrix |
| SAM | Software Administrators Manual |
| SAN | Storage Area Network |
| SAR | Synthetic Aperture Radar |
| SCMP | Software Configuration Management Plan |
| SIP | Submission Information Package |
| SLA | Service Level Agreement |
| SOAP | Simple Object Access Protocol |
| SOM | Software Operators Manual |
| SoW | Statement of Work |
| SPMP | Software Project Management Plan |
| SPR | Software Problem Report |
| SPR | System Problem Report |
| SQAP | Software Quality Assurance Plan |
| SQL | Structured Query Language |
| SRD | System Requirements Document |
| SRR | System Requirements Review |
| SSD | Software Specification Document |
| SSP | Storage Service Provider |
| SST | Sea Surface Temperature |
| STD | Software Transfer Document |
| SUM | Software Users Manual |
| SVVP | Software Verification and Validation Plan |
| SW | Software |
| TBC | To Be Confirmed |
| TBD | To Be Defined |
| TIFF | Tagged Image File Format |
| TN | Technical Note |
| TRP | Technology Research Programme |
| TS | Technical Specification |
| TTP | Technology Transfer Programme |
| UMTS | Universal Mobile Telecommunications System |
| URD | User Requirements Document |
| VAI | Value Added Industry |
| VASP | Value Added Industry and Application Service Providers |
| VR | Virtual Reality |
| W3C | World Wide Web Consortium |
| WEU | Western European Union |
| WRS | World Reference System |
| WWW | World Wide Web |
| XML | eXtensible Markup Language |
RTD Projects
| ACRONYM | PROJECT |
| ADAR | Advanced Data Archive |
| ADAS | Advanced Earth Observation Data Acquisition System |
| Array | Analysis of the use of antenna arrays for small EO receiving stations |
| ASCESA | An e-Science and Collaborative Environment for Space Applications |
| CAT | Compact Active Transponders for Ground Motion Monitoring |
| CoMu | Mission Planning for Constellations and Multi-use |
| Crater | Survey of algorithms for automatic recognition of impact craters |
| DEBAT | Digital EAST Based Access Tools applications |
| DISP | Development and Implementation of an Interferometric SAR Processor |
| DPF | Data Processing Framework for EO |
| EKNOS | EO Knowledge Navigational System |
| ESEC | Analysis and Demonstrator implementation of an e-commerce security infrastructure for spatial applications |
| GODIS | GRID-on-demand Infrastructure and Services |
| GREASE | Grid-aware End-to-end Analysis and Service Environment |
| GREAT | GridAssist based EO and Science Tools |
| HICOD2000 | High-performance Coding, Protection and Trading of Satellite Images, using JPEG2000 |
| HiProGen | High level information Product Generation and formatting for specific applications |
| HiProGEx | High level information Products Generation Extension |
| ICDY | Impact Crater Discovery |
| ISAC | EO User Information Systems Application Client |
| ISP | Interferometric SAR Processor |
| KEO | Knowledge-centric Earth Observation |
| KES | EO domain specific Knowledge Enabled Services |
| KES-B | EO domain specific Knowledge Enabled Services |
| KIM | Knowledge driven Information Mining in remote sensing image archives |
| KIMV | KIM Validation for EO archived data exploitation support |
| MAPS-AIS | Multi-mission Performing Catalogue and Analysis Tools for new EO instruments |
| MASS | Multi-Application support Service System |
| MIR | Multiple Image Registration Tools |
| MOST | MOdelling and Simulation Tools to support end to end applications |
| PRESS | Prototype Environment for Services from Small Autonomous Missions |
| QUARC | Quality Analysis and Reporting Computer |
| RDFA | RDF Semantic Web Technology Assessment |
| RTS | Real Time Services for EO Data Distribution |
| SAG | Scatterometer Algorithm review for Gyro-less operations |
| SMOG | Impact of Small Missions on earth-Observation Ground segment systems |
| SMOG-B | Impact of Small Missions on earth-Observation Ground segment systems |
| SpaceGRID | Study of GRIDS and collaborative environment for Space Applications |
| SURF | SURvey and classification of advanced Feature manipulation techniques and tools for earth observation applications |
| UGEI | Universal Geometry Engine for EO Images |
| UGEIP | Universal Geometry Engine for EO Images - Preparation |
| ViCeM | Virtual centralised system for mission planning |
| VREM | 3D/VR interactive Visualisation of environmental derived variables and REal Measurements |
| VRES | Virtual REality System for earth observation applications |
| VRES-E | VRES Extension for improved operability |
