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Glossary of Terms

Reference the Earth Observation Data Basics Glossary to better understand terms related to the data provided by our program.

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Description Source
Standing Review Board (SRB)

The SRB is responsible for conducting independent reviews (life cycle and special) of a program/project and providing objective, expert judgments to the convening authorities. The reviews are conducted in accordance with approved Terms of Reference (ToR) and life-cycle requirements per this document and NPR 7123.1.

Stewardship

The responsibility for planning, management and certification of digital EO data sets throughout the mission phases and to ensure adequate funding. It includes curation and preservation activities. 

Data stewardship covers governance, planning, implementation and management of the sourcing, use and maintenance of space data assets. Data stewardship enables the governance of all the types and forms of space data package and the related repositories or archives.

Stratosphere

The zone of the atmosphere above the troposphere that is characterized at first by isothermal conditions and then a gradual temperature increase.

Structured Vocabulary

An organized set of terms, headings or codes representing concepts and their inter-relationships, which can be used to support information retrieval.

Definition from ISO 25964-1:2011

Subsetting

The extraction of a multi-dimensional rectangular array of pixels from a single data granule, where consecutive pixels are extracted from each array dimension. For each dimension, the size of the pixel array is characterized by the starting pixel location and the number of pixels to extract.

Swath

A swath is defined as the area covered by the spatial samples collected during a scan of a spaceborne instrument defined by an incidence angle.

System Acceptance Review (SAR)

SARs evaluate whether a specific end item is sufficiently mature to be shipped from the supplier to its designated operational facility or launch site.

System Definition Review (SDR)

SDRs evaluate the credibility and responsiveness of the proposed program requirements/architecture to the Mission Directorate requirements and constraints, including available resources, and allocation of requirements to projects. SDRs also determine whether the maturity of the program's mission/system definition and associated plans are sufficient to begin preliminary design.

System Integration Review (SIR)

SIRs evaluate the readiness of the program, including its projects and supporting infrastructure, to begin system algorithm integration and test (AI&T) with acceptable risk and within cost and schedule constraints.

System Requirements Review (SRR)

SRRs evaluate whether the functional and performance requirements defined for the system are responsive to the Mission Directorate requirements on the program and its projects and represent achievable capabilities.

Temporal Extent or Temporal Coverage

The period during which data was collected, observations were made, or for which a model was run.

Troposphere

The lowermost layer of the atmosphere marked by considerable turbulence and generally a decrease in temperature with increasing height.

Uncertainty

Non-negative parameter characterizing the dispersion of the quantity values that are being attributed to a measure based on the information used. 

Where possible, this should be derived from an experimental evaluation but can also be an estimate based on other information, e.g. experience.

Unified Metadata Model (UMM) Profile

One of seven UMM metadata profiles: Collection (UMM-C), Granule (UMM-G), Service (UMM-S), Variable (UMM-Var), Visualization (UMM-Vis), Tools (UMM-T), and Common (UMM-Common).

User

External person, institution or system that consumes user services provided by the payload data ground segment via data access or a science and service exploitation platform.

User Support

User support is a function inside the payload data ground segment to support external users to interact with the segment, to handle user registration, inquiries, complaints. This function is usually provided by a help desk.

Validation

The process of assessing, by independent means, the quality of the data products derived from the system outputs.

Validation Stage

See: Data Maturity Levels

Variable

See: Parameter

Version/Release Number (also Collection)

Collection means the same thing as version; however, the MODIS science team uses the term Collection such as in MODIS Collection 5, but NSIDC uses Version as in MODIS Version 5. Also, Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) refers to a release such as Release 33, which is also the same as version or collection. Thus, all three terms mean the same thing depending on which product you are using.

Visualization

Visualization—sometimes called scientific visualization—provides a window into reams of observational and simulation data by creating graphical representations that communicate to researchers and public alike. Just as a picture is worth a thousand words, visualizations are worth billions of bytes, both elucidating and simplifying big data.

Definition from NCCS

Web Object Storage

Object storage accessible through https.

Working Agreement (W/A)

A working agreement (W/A) outlines the working commitments made between the ESDIS Project and another organization for developing, implementing and/or operating portions of the data system.