The Earth Observation sciences are highly multidisciplinary with long value chains from the development, characterisation and deployment of sensors, through data processing and modelling, to the information services provided to decision makers in, for example, governments, companies and non-governmental organisations. A prerequisite to any multidisciplinary collaboration is effective communication and many communities involved in the value chains have developed vocabularies or terminologies to define terms from a particular viewpoint or legacy. However, these vocabularies are often inconsistent, with circular definitions, contradictions and using technical terms that are not defined. Here, three case studies from Earth Observation disciplines are considered involving challenges in the definition and use of the terms ‘observation’, ‘in-situ’ and ‘interoperable’. An approach is suggested for an initiative, starting in Earth Observation, to build a consistent thesaurus taking inspiration from the ISO 25964:2011 standard.

地球观测科学是高度多学科的，其价值链很长，从传感器的开发、表征和部署，到数据处理和建模，再到向政府、公司和非政府组织等决策者提供信息服务。任何多学科合作的先决条件是有效的沟通，价值链中涉及的许多社区已经开发了词汇或术语来从特定观点或遗产定义术语。然而，这些词汇常常不一致，存在循环定义、矛盾以及使用未定义的技术术语。这里，考虑了来自地球观测学科的三个案例研究，涉及术语“观测”、“原位”和“可互操作”的定义和使用方面的挑战。建议采取一种方法，从地球观测开始，从 ISO 25964:2011 标准中汲取灵感，建立一致的同义词库。