A Review of Remote Sensing Data Formats for Earth System Observations

Abstract

Earth observing remote sensing involves a variety of diverse instruments and platforms, ranging from hand-held close-range spectrometers to imagers and sounders on board satellites tens of thousands kilometers above the earth. The data format for a remote sensing mission is usually chosen based on a number of considerations, including requirements of the sensing system, mission objective, the design and technology of data processing, archiving, and distribution systems, as well as community data standard. Currently, earth observing data, or geospatial data, are stored in a wide variety of formats. For most end users, the inconsistencies in the formats of data obtained from different sources can cause problems, sometimes significant difficulties, in prompt and effective use of the data. It would be desirable if all data can be generated in one best format that is universally applicable for all systems, missions, and product levels. Such a “best format” is, however, not available and seems not likely to emerge due to the diverse nature of the earth system and the cultural differences between disciplines, not to mention the ever evolving computing and archiving technologies. Fortunately, there are some commonly used data formats which are considered as somewhat standardized formats in several communities. Knowledge in these common formats will help the use of data products stored in such formats and the analysis/processing software developed for such formats, and the development of tools to perform conversions among such formats. This chapter will review some of these data formats.