The OSEI file naming convention was initiated on April 1, 1998 and exists to
provide information about each image within the confines of a
reasonable-length filename.
We seek a balance between long, descriptive filenames like
and concise, ambiguous filenames like
The first filename is too long for users who may need to reference the image later and must remember the name or those who may need to enter the full filename into the address window of a browser.
The second filename tells the user nothing about the image except, perhaps, that it was the first one created.
Instead, our file naming convention indicates the type of significant event that is present in the image, the event location and the date of satellite pass in a relatively concise filename which is usually not more than 12 characters long (not counting the extension).
Click below (or here) to
launch our filename model which will describe the format of our filenames and
provides links to each of the sections.