Earth Imaging Glossary
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" A "
ABLATION
Removal of a part by melting or vaporization.
ACRIDIDS
A family of orthopterous insects including the grasshopper. All the species of this family can
leap.
ADAPS--AVHRR Data Acquisition and Processing System
The EROS Data Center ADAPS, which began operation in May 1987, receives
approximately 6 passes per day of HRPT data over the conterminous United States.
AEROMAGNETIC
Aeromagnetic is descriptive of data pertaining to the Earth's magnetic field which has been
collected from an airborne sensor.
AGRHYMET--AGRicultural, HYdrological and METeorological program
A West African AGRHYMET program which collects and disseminates environmental
information on West Africa.
AID--Agency for International Development
The United States Federal agency for international development projects.
ALBEDO
The percentage of incoming radiation that is reflected by a natural surface such as the
ground, ice, snow, water, clouds, or particulates in the atmosphere.
ALBERS EQUAL AREA PROJECTION
The Albers Equal Area projection is a method of projection on which the areas of all regions
are shown in the same proportion of their true areas. The meridians are equally spaced
straight lines converging at a common point, which is normally beyond the pole. The angles
between them are less than the true angles. The parallels are unequally spaced concentric
circular arcs centered on the point of convergence of the meridians. The meridians are radii
of the circular arcs. The poles are normally circular arcs enclosing the same angle as that
enclosed by the other parallels of latitude for a given range of longitude.
Albers Equal Area is frequently used in the ellipsoidal form for maps of the United States in
the National Atlas of the United States, for thematic maps, and for world atlases. It is also
used and recommended for equal-area maps of regions that are predominantly east-west in
extent.
ANSI--American National Standards Institute
An ANSI standard implies a consensus of those substantially concerned with the scope and
provisions of a product and is intended as a guide to aid the manufacturer, consumer, and the
general public.
For further information, contact: American National Standards Institute
ANTHROPOGENIC
Relating to the scientific study of the origin of human beings and the results of their influence
on nature.
APFO--Aerial Photography Field Office
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's APFO is managed by the Farm Service Agency (FSA).
FSA was formerly known as the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service
(ASCS). APFO is the repository for all of the USDA's aerial photography. The archive
contains over 50,000 rolls of film acquired over the last 40 years and includes over 14
million frames of coverage of the conterminous U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii. APFO provides
photographic products to local county, State and Federal offices within the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA) including FSA, National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS),
and the Forest Service. They also serve the general public with similar products upon request
at the cost of reproduction.
For further information, contact: FSA Aerial Photography Field Office
ARC EXPORT
EXPORT creates an ARC/INFO interchange file to transfer coverages, INFO data files, text
files, and other ARC/INFO files between various computer systems. An interchange file
contains all coverage information and appropriate INFO file information in a fixed length,
ASCII format. It can be fully or partially compressed as well as uncompressed ASCII
depending upon the given EXPORT option.
ARC SECOND
1/3600th of a degree (1 second) of latitude or longitude.
ARC/INFO
ARC/INFO is a geographic information system (GIS) used to automate, manipulate, analyze,
and display geographic data in digital form. ARC/INFO is a proprietary system developed
and distributed by the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., in Redlands,
California.
DISCLAIMER: Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and
does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
ArcUSA
Designed by ESRI, ArcUSA is a general-purpose database used to generate thematic maps of
the conterminous United States at the State and county levels. The database contains
cartographic information, tabular information, and indices and is designed for a wide range
of applications.
AREAL
Relating to or involving an area.
ASCENDING NODE
Direction satellite is traveling relative to the Equator. An ascending node would imply a
northbound Equatorial crossing.
ASCIIAmerican Standard Code for Information Interchange
A seven-bit code standard adopted to facilitate data interchange between computers and
operating systems. These codes represent alphanumerics and special characters (for example,
$, /, ?, !).
ASTRODYNAMICS
The dynamics of celestial bodies including the motion and gravitation of natural and artificial
objects in space.
ASTRONOMIC
Pertaining to the science of astronomy. Astronomy is the science of the heavenly bodies
(fixed stars, planets, satellites, and comets) their nature, distribution, magnitudes, motions,
distances, periods of revolution, eclipses, etc.
ATOMIC-ABSORPTION SPECTROPHOTOMETRY
This destructive analytical technique is used to determine concentrations of specific chemical
elements based on their emission or absorption of specific wavelengths of electromagnetic
radiation.
ATTRIBUTES
Attributes, also called feature codes or classification attributes, are used to describe map
information represented by a node, line, or area. For example, an attribute code for an area
might identify it to be a lake or swamp; an attribute code for a line might identify a road,
railroad, stream, or shoreline.
AVHRRAdvanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
The AVHRR is a broad-band, 4 or 5 channel scanner (depending on the model), sensing in
the visible, near-infrared, and thermal infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. This
sensor is carried on NOAA's Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES), beginning with
TIROS-N in 1978.
AZIMUTH
Azimuth is the angle of horizontal deviation, measured clockwise, of a bearing from a
standard direction.
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Initial content for this Glossary of terms has been graciously supplied by RADARSAT International - www.rsi.ca
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