Who were SRI?
Why did it have the same name as the original Terra Vision?
Why did it have the same name as the original Terra Vision?
The same name is a really good question. But since SRI TerraVision and the Art+Com TerraVision both seems to be started at the same time around 1993 and both use the same SGI hardware (an Onyx) I could image that Brian from SGI was in contact with both teams.
"This work was supported in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency under Contract F19628-92-C-0071."
Which implies that it was in development long before the date on the PDF.
Earth mapping was a very hot field in the 1980s with most of it being funded by intelligence agencies and classified.