Plain-language definitions of commercial drone and aerial imaging terms. New entries published weekly.
Current entries
- Base Surface — the reference surface a stockpile volume is measured down to
- BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) — operating a drone where the pilot cannot see it
- DSM vs DTM (Surface Model vs Terrain Model) — the top of everything standing on a site versus the bare ground beneath it
- GCP (Ground Control Point) — the surveyed target that ties a drone survey to a real coordinate system
- GSD (Ground Sample Distance) — the real-world size of one pixel in a drone image
- LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) — laser-based ranging method for drone surveying
- NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) — multispectral measure of crop and vegetation health
- Orthomosaic — a geometrically corrected aerial image you can measure on directly
- Photogrammetry — measuring 3D geometry from overlapping 2D photographs
- Radiometric vs Non-Radiometric Thermal — why only calibrated thermal imagery supports a temperature measurement
- Remote ID — the broadcast 'digital licence plate' drones over 250 g transmit in flight
- RTK vs PPK — the two centimetre-grade GNSS positioning methods used in drone mapping
- SORA (Specific Operations Risk Assessment) — the structured method for authorizing higher-risk operations
- Vertical Datum and Geoid — the surface elevations are measured from, and the model that converts a GNSS height into it
More terms coming. Contact us if there is a term you would like covered.
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