Lossless Compression Handbook

CHAPTER 16

The CCSDS Lossless Data

Compression Recommendation

for Space Applications 1

PEN-SHU YEH

16.1 INTRODUCTION

In the late 1980s, when the author started working at the Goddard Space Flight Center for the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), several scientists were in the process

of formulating the next generation of Earth-viewing science instruments, such as the Moderate

Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. The instrument would have over 30 spectral bands and

would transmit an enormous amount of data through the communications channel. In an attempt

to solve the problem associated with buffering