Glossary

AGL - Above Ground Level - Important for drone flight planning and UK operational limits
BVLOS - Beyond Visual Line of Sight
CAA - Civil Aviation Authority - UK aviation regulator
DEM - Digital Elevation Model - Elevation surface generated from mapping data
DSM - Digital Surface Model - Surface including buildings, vegetation etc.
DTM - Digital Terrain Model - Ground terrain model, generally excluding buildings/vegetation
GCP - Ground Control Point - Surveyed ground reference used to improve georeferencing accuracy
GIS - Geographic Information System
GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite System
GPS - Global Positioning System
GSD - Ground Sampling Distance - Ground size represented by each image pixel; critical to drone mapping
GVC - General Visual Line of Sight Certificate - Being replaced by RPC
LiDAR - Light Detection and Ranging - Laser-based 3D surveying/mapping technology
Nadir - Drone camera pointing straight down
OSGB - Ordnance Survey Great Britain - Coordinate/reference-system terminology used with UK mapping
RPC - Remote Pilot Certificate
RTK - Real-Time Kinematic - Real-time GNSS positioning corrections
SfM - Structure from Motion - Interpretation of features in photos to locate 3D points in space
SLAM - Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping - Technology used to map while simultaneously determining position
TOAL - Take Off and Land
UAV - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle - Drone
VLOS - Visual Line of Sight