Abstract Considerable analog and digital remotely sensed imagery is in danger of being lost for future research if appropriate analog and digital methods of data archiving are not initiated. In addition, there should be some mechanism for accessing and viewing the archived information. This paper summarizes important issues that must be resolved when developing a remote sensing image browse and archival system, including: selection of the storage media having the greatest longevity and least cost, browse versus archive considerations, image scanning considerations, data compression logic, degree of image rectification required, and the design of the user interface including method of interaction (traditional versus hypertext) and methods of search (space‐dominant, time‐dominant and/or attribute‐dominant). An operational hypermedia browse and archival system demonstrates how these considerations might be addressed.
