Information content of compressed remotely sensed data

Information is the end requirement from remotely sensed data. However, normally the extraction of this information starts with an original (uncompressed) image which has arrived by courier on some form of digital media. However, as the use of remotely sensed data advances towards more operational use the need for the electronic transfer of data is increasing to meet operational time constraints. In order to reduce the time for data transmission, and consequently costs, considerations are being given to mechanisms to compress data with and without loss. In this study data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), and the European Space Agency (ESA) European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1) were compressed to different levels (up to 50 times compression). This paper will present the results of the assessment of the information content of these data for crop condition monitoring (AVHRR) and ice navigation (ERS-1) as a function of compression ratio