Remote Sensing Science Olympiad

Remote Sensing

collection and interpretation of information about an object without being in physical contact with the object

ATI

Apparent thermal inertia

AVHRR

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVIRIS

Airborne visible and infrared imaging spectrometer

CALIPSO

Cloud-Aerosol Lider and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations

CCD

Charge-coupled detector

CCT

Computer-compatible tape

COSMIC

Computer Software Management and Information Center

CRT

Cathode ray tube

CZCS

Coastal Zone color scanner

EDC

EROS Data Center

EOSAT

The commercial company that took over operations of the Landsat system in 1985

ERBSS

Earth Radiation Budget Sensor System

EREP

Earth Resources Experiment Package

EROS

Earth Resources Observation System

ERTS

Earth Resource Technology Satellite

ESA

European Space Agency

ETC

Earth-terrain camera

GCP

Ground-control point

GMT

Greenwich mean time

GOES

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

GRACE

Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment

GSFC

Goddard Space Flight Center

HCMM

Heat Capacity Mapping Mission

HIRIS

High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer

HIRS

High Resolution Infrared Spectrometer

HRPT

High Resolution Picture Transmission

IFOV

Instantaneous field of view

IHS

Intensity, hue and saturation system of colors

IR

Infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum that includes wavelengths from 0.7m to 1mm.

ISO Index

Index of the International Standards Organization

JPL

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

LACIE

Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment

LFC

Large-format camera

MODIS

Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

MOMS

Modular optoelectric multispectal scanner

MOS-1

Marine Observation Satellite

MSS

Multispectral scanner system of Landsat that acquires images of four wavelengths bands in the visible and reflected IR regions

NASA

National Aeronautical and Space Administration

NHAP

National High Altitude Photography program of the U.S. Geological Survey

NOAA

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NSSDC

National Space Science Data Center

OMS

Orbital maneuvering system

RBV

Return-beam vidicon

SAMII

Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement experiment, carried by Nimbis-7

SAMS

Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder, carried by Nimbus-7

SBUV

Solar Back-scatter Ultraviolet Instrument carried by NOAA satellites

SEAWifs

Sea-viewing Wide Field of View Sensor

SIR

Shuttle Imaging Radar

SLAR

Side-looking airborne radar

SMIRR

Shuttle Multispectral Infrared Radiometer

SMMR

Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer

SPOT

Systeme Probatoire d'Observation del la Terre

SSU

Stratosphere Sounding Unit

TDRS

Tracking and Data Relay Satellite

THIR

Temperature-Humidity Infrared Radiometer

TIMS

Thermal IR Multispectral scanner

TM

Thematic mapper

TOMS

Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer

TOVS

TIROS- Operational Vertical Sounder

TRMM

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission

UHF

Ultra High Frequency

UTC

Universal Time Coordinated

UV

Ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum ranging in wavelengths from 0.01 to 0.4m

VAS VISSR

Atmospheric Sounder, carried by GEOS satellites

VISSR

Visible Infrared Spin-Scan Radiometer carried by the GEOS satellites

bilinear interpolation

calculates value for each output pixel based on a weighted average of the four nearest input pixels

cubic convolution

most widely used; uses weighted average of values within a neighborhood of 16 pixels

destriping

application of algorithms to adjust incorrect brightness values to values thought to be near the correct value

DOS

direct method for adjusting digital values for atmospheric degradation; corrects additive effects of atmospheric scattering

GCPs

places on the input image that can be located with precision on the ground and on planimetrically correct maps

georeferencing

resampling of an image requires matching the reference image and the reference points corresponding to specific location on ground; coordinate system

HMM

adjusts digital values for atmospheric degradation; applied to entire scene

nearest neighbor

simplest strategy; assign each corrected pixel the value from the nearest uncorrected pixel

reference data

information assumed to be correct

RMSE

root mean square error; standard deviation of the difference between actual positions of GCPs and their calculated positions

striping

dropped scan lines, horizontal banding caused by small differences in the sensitives of detectors within the sensor

AMOEBA

basic strategy for unsupervised classification; considers the locations of values as spectral classes are formed

ancillary data

data acquired by means other than remote sensing that are used to assist in the classification or analysis

ANN

computer programs that are designed to stimulate human learning processes through establishment and reinforcement of linkages between input and output data

CART

method for incorporating ancillary data into image classification; applies recursive division of data

frequency histogram

seeks unimodal; mean is used as measure of central tendency; a single peak

fuzzy classification

no distinction is possible between pixels that are central to class definition, and those that are peripheral

hybrid classification

characteristics of both unsupervised and supervised classification

informational classes

categories of interest to the users of the data

ISODATA

classifier that is a variation of min distance; produces results that are superior and have both unsup and sup classification

KNN

simple and efficient application of distance based classification examines each pixel to be classified, then identifies the k nearest training samples as measured in multispectral data space

max likelihood classification

uses training data as a means of estimating means and variances of classes, which are then used to estimate probabilities of unknown pixels

min distance classification

uses central values of the spectral data that for the training data as a means of assigning pixels to info classes; each pixel is assigned to closest group

multispectral data space

image data at specific frequencies across the EM spectrum

normalized difference

measure of distinctiveness; divided difference in class means by the sum of their standard deviation

object oriented classification

through segmentation process, pixel can be organized to form objects that correspond to features of interest in the image; then treated as entities to be classified

parallelepiped classification

box decision rule; unclassified pixels are projected into data space and known are defined by training data and assigned

seed pixel

selection of pixel of interest and grows a region of similar contiguous pixels

signature alarm

identifies all pixels within the image that match a selected signature

spectral classes

groups of pixels that are uniform with respect to the brightnesses

supervised classification

considerable analyst interaction; guides classification by identifying areas on the image that are known to belong to each category

training field

areas of known identity delineated on the digital image, usually specifying the corner points of a square or rectangle etc

unsupervised classification

minimal interaction with analyst in a search for natural groups of pixels present within image

field data

observations collected at or near ground level in support of remote sensing analysis