The rapid development of multimedia and Internet technology enables real-time remote sensing image and video transmission.In recent years

multiple description coding has attracted considerable attention as an optional solution to remote sensing image degradation problem caused by unreliable channel’s transmission.Combining multiple description coding with quality scalable coding mechanism

this paper proposes a layered multiple description scalable remote sensing image coding algorithm based on discrete cosine transform （DCT）.The algorithm first divides DCT coefficients into a base layer and an enhancement layer by quantization.The enhancement layer is then subsample to form multiple descriptions

while the base layer is encoded into every description as a redundancy.Since base layer contains significant information of original remote sensing image

the above strategy ensures that each description obtains as much base layer information as possible when decoding.Moreover

the base layer in each description is coded independently in an embedded manner.This can facilitate an effective protection against channel transmission errors so as to improve robustness of coded bitstream.The layered structure realizes low computational complexity

easy redundancy control

and embedded bitstream.Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.