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Remote Sensing Names

The quantity and variety of remotely sensed data across DCCEEW continues to grow at a rapid rate. To improve machine readability and increase intradepartmental consistency, this naming convention was established in mid-2024.

The structure roughly follows the Joint Remote Sensing Research Program (JRSRP) naming convention often referred to as the QVF. Details of this naming convention have been specified in a 2013 publication (https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/A_File_Naming_Convention_for_a_Large_Satellite_Imagery_Archive_QVF_a_case_study/875298). Section 5.1 of the publication specifies lessons learned after a period of time where the naming convention was applied and tested for various data. These lessons learned have been applied to update the QVF naming convention to the Remote Sensing Names (RSN) convention below.

This page includes all the possible values which can appear in the different fields of the RSN convention. It shows a set of tables for each of the filename fields, with the possible values for that field, and their meanings.

The RSN applies to the following types of data:

  • Aerial photography
  • Satellite imagery
  • Remotely piloted aircraft imagery
  • Piloted aircraft imagery
  • Light detection and ranging (lidar) data from both terrestrial and aerial platforms
  • Surface and underwater vessels
  • Digital elevation models
  • Space imagery