What in the World?
This describes the north-south lines on a map that change when moving east or west.
What is longitude?
A representation of raster data with distinct categories or classes, such as land use types or soil classifications, where each pixel holds a single, fixed value
What is discrete raster data?
This is a data model component comprised of rows and columns, and stores non-spatial data descriptors.
What is an attribute table?
A unit of measurement that represents latitude and longitude coordinates
What are decimal degrees?
This "data about the data" contains useful information about GIS datasets, such as who created them, or what the attributes mean
What is metadata?
This type of data represents the physical characteristics of the Earth's surface, often visualized through elevation or terrain maps.
What is raster data?
The size of a pixel that determines the area represented on the ground--zoom in too much and you get a stair-step effect.
What is spatial resolution?
A type of geometry with often many connected vertices and closed start- and end-nodes
What is a polygon?
This lumpy potato is actually a complicated mathematical model that seeks to represent the shape of the earth, and is also used when measuring vertical coordinates or heights
What is a geoid?
This is the process of organizing, storing, and maintaining datasets for efficient analysis and workflows.
What is data management?
The ratio of the distance on the map that corresponds to its distance on the ground.
What is map scale?
This raster resampling technique uses a weighted average of the closest 4 pixels.
What is bilinear interpolation?
This type of line, also known as a great circle, hugs the curvature of the earth and represents the shortest distance between two points.
What is a geodetic line?
This family of projections is great for mapping mid-latitude regions and minimizes distortion of shapes and area calculations.
What is a conical projection?
A GIS tool that allows users to perform mathematical operations on raster datasets, and enables the creation of new raster layers by combining and manipulating existing data.
What is the raster calculator tool?
These are divisions of the electromagnetic spectrum captured by satellite sensors and used to analyze different surface features. They are often normalized to enhance
What are spectral bands?
This term refers to the range of values used to represent the gray shade of a single pixel in a raster image.
What is pixel depth or bit depth? (Or radiometric resolution)
It's a vector data type that has at least three different files that are needed for it to work and display properly in a GIS.
What is a shapefile?
This is a popular projected coordinate system and has a different 6o wide cylindrical shape for every area on the globe, making it nearly "universal".
What is UTM?
This is a geospatial decision support tool composed of hardware, software, data, and people
What is a GIS?
An image transformation technique that uses multiple polynomials and is sometimes called "rubber sheeting" because it warps the image to conform to the control points.
What is a spline transformation?
These are subsampled copies of raster data that increase the drawing speeds in a GIS when a user zooms or pans the map.
What are raster pyramids?
A framework that establishes rules to govern the spatial relationship between features, such as adjacency or connectivity. It can be planar or non-planar.
What is vector topology?
A mathematical process that converts spatial data from one datum to another, ensuring accurate alignment across different datums.
What is a datum transformation?
This tool or technique enables users to filter and find specific data points or features based on user-defined conditions and parameters.
What is 'Query Builder', 'Select by...', or 'Definition Query'?