ISO 26868:2009 establishes a data compression algorithm applicable to two-dimensional digital spatial image data from payload instruments and specifies how this compressed data is formatted into segments to enable decompression at the receiving end.

Source coding for data compression is a method utilized in data systems to reduce the volume of digital data to achieve benefits in areas including, but not limited to:

• reduction of transmission channel bandwidth;
• reduction of the buffering and storage requirement;
• reduction of data-transmission time at a given rate.