[data models]
In imagery and elevation, a spatial data model organized into a matrix of equally sized cells, or pixels, and arranged in rows and columns, composed of single or multiple bands. Each cell contains a numeric value representing information such as temperature at a particular height or depth, elevation, or image brightness value. The scale can be nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio. Unlike a vector structure, which stores coordinates explicitly, raster coordinates are contained in the ordering of the matrix. Groups of cells that share the same coordinate value represent the same geographic feature.
[ESRI software]
In ArcGIS, an in-memory representation of a raster dataset. A raster can exist as a subset of a raster dataset; it can have a different cell size than the raster dataset or use a different transformation than the raster.