In
remote sensing
Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...
, ground sample distance (GSD) in a digital photo of the ground from air or space is the distance between
pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...
centers measured on the ground. For example, in an image with a one-meter GSD, adjacent pixels image locations are 1 meter apart on the ground. GSD is a measure of one limitation to
spatial resolution
In physics and geosciences, the term spatial resolution refers to distance between independent measurements, or the physical dimension that represents a pixel of the image. While in some instruments, like cameras and telescopes, spatial resolutio ...
or
image resolution
Image resolution is the level of detail of an image. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail.
Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies ...
, that is, the limitation due to
sampling.
GSD is also referred to as ground-projected sample interval (GSI) and is related to the ground-projected instantaneous field of view (GIFOV).
[{{cite book
, title = Encyclopedia of Optical Engineering
, author = Ronald G. Driggers
, publisher = CRC Press
, year = 2003
, isbn = 978-0-8247-4251-5
, page = 1392
, url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4hBTUY_2BMIC&dq=%22ground+sample+distance%22&pg=PA1392
]
See also
*
Geographic distance
Geographical distance or geodetic distance is the distance measured along the surface of the Earth, or the shortest arch length.
The formulae in this article calculate distances between points which are defined by geographical coordinates in ...
References
Aerial photography
Photogrammetry
Satellite imagery