Definitions, Acronyms, Abbreviations

Definition of Terms

(Data) Product An object that contains remote sensing data for a well known scene on the earth. Within the Sentinel Toolbox, a product can contain meta-data, geo-coding information, tie-point grids and bands. All band raster datasets within a product have the same pixel resolution and share the same geo-coding.
Band A spectral or geophysical raster dataset of a product. The band's sample values are usually the measurements of a sensor.
Tie-point grid An auxiliary (geophysical) raster dataset of a product. Tie-point grids usually provide less sample values than a band. Missing values, with respect to the full pixel resolution of a product, are obtained by a linear interpolation. The tie-point grid data does normally not originate from the sensor which provided the product's measurement data.
Geometry A geometric shape (point, line, polyline or polygon). Geometries can be drawn on a scene view.
Mask Marks a regions of raster dataset. Masks can be derived from an expressions, a value range or a geometry.
Flag-Dataset A special band type which contains quality flag information. Flag datasets always have an unsigned integer data type (8 to 32 bit). Flag values are encoded through one or more bits: A flag is considered as set when a specific bit combination is met. Each flag's metadata is stored in a corresponding flag coding object.
Flag-Coding Flag codings are used to specify the bit positions of single flags within an integer sample value of a quality flags dataset. Each element in a flag coding provides the metadata for a flag such as the name, description and a bit-index.
Index-Coding Index codings are used for classification bands. It maps a sample value of the band to a class by using the value as index. Each element in an index coding provides the metadata for a class such as the name, description and the index.
Geo-Coding Provides the geodetic co-ordinates for a given pixel of a product. An image is geo-coded if it is somehow possible to find the geographical latitude and longitude values for any pixel. SNAP products store their geo-coding information in tie-point grids or bands. If a product has been map transformed, it is known to be geo-referenced and as such, tie-point information is no longer required.
Geo-Reference An image is geo-referenced, if any point in the image can be found in a corresponding reference map by a linear transformation. Every pixel in the image has the same size if expressed in map units. Geo-referencing a geo-coded image includes image warping, applying a well known map projection and pixel re-sampling.
Map Graphic representation of the physical features (natural, artificial, or both) of a part or the whole of the Earth's surface, by means of signs and symbols or photographic imagery, at an established scale, on a specified projection, and with the means of orientation indicated.
Map Projection Orderly system of lines on a plane representing a corresponding system of imaginary lines on an adopted terrestrial or celestial datum surface. Also, the mathematical concept for such a system. For maps of the Earth, a projection consists of a graticule of lines representing parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude or a grid.
Graticule Network of parallels and meridians on a map or chart. A geographic graticule is a system of coordinates of latitude and longitude used to define the position of a point on the surface of the Earth with respect to the reference ellipsoid.
Grid In connection with maps: a network of uniformly spaced parallel lines intersecting at right angles. When superimposed on a map, it usually carries the name of the projection used for the map that is, Lambert grid, transverse Mercator grid, universal transverse Mercator grid.
Pixel coordinates In the Sentinel Toolbox, pixel values always refer to the upper left corner of the pixel. Pixel co-ordinates are always zero based, the pixel at X=0,Y=0 refers to the upper left pixel of an image and the upper left corner of that pixel.
Pixel value In general a composite of red, green and blue sample values resulting in a colour as part of an image. Within the Sentinel Toolbox, often synonymously referred to as the single, geophysical sample value of a band or tie-point grid.
Geodetic co-ordinates Geodetic co-ordinates are given as latitude and longitude values and always refer - if not otherwise stated - to the WGS-84 ellipsoid. The geodetic co-ordinates of a pixel, always refer to the upper left corner of the pixel.

Acronyms, Abbreviations

AATSR Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer
ADS Annotation Data Set in an ENVISAT data product
ASAR Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radarr
BEAM Acronym for Basic ENVISAT Toolbox for (A)ATSR and MERIS
COTS Commercial Off-The-Shelf Software
CSV Character Separated Value
ECSS European Co-operation for Space Standardisation (documents available at ESTEC at the Requirements and Standards Division)
EnviView Software developed at ESTEC to visualise and analyse the Envisat data.
EO Earth Observation
ESA European Space Agency
ESRI Environmental Systems Research Institute
ESRIN European Space Research Institute
ESTEC European Space Research and Technology Centre
ENVISAT ESA satellite
GADS Global Annotation Data Set in an ENVISAT data product
HDF Hierarchical Data Format
HDF-EOS Extended HDF format
MATBX BEAM's former project name
MDS Measurement Data Set in an ENVISAT data product
MERIS Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer Instrument
MERMAID MERis MAtchup In-situ Database
MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
MPH Main Product Header in an ENVISAT data product
OSSD Open Source Software Development
OBPG Ocean Biology Processing Group (OBPG) of NASA
SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar
SeaDAS Sea, earth, atmosphere Data Analysis System
SeaWiFS Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor
SNAP Sentinel Application Platform
SPH Specific Product Header in an ENVISAT data product  
SW Software