  Context. Several upcoming and proposed space missions, such as Solar Orbiter,
will be limited in telemetry and thus require data compression.
  Aims. We test the impact of data compression on local correlation tracking
(LCT) of time-series of continuum intensity images. We evaluate the effect of
several lossy compression methods (quantization, JPEG compression, and a
reduced number of continuum images) on measurements of solar differential
rotation with LCT.
  Methods. We apply the different compression methods to tracked and remapped
continuum intensity maps obtained by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI)
onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory. We derive 2D vector velocities using
the local correlation tracking code FLCT and determine the additional bias and
noise introduced by compression to differential rotation.
  Results. We find that probing differential rotation with LCT is very robust
to lossy data compression when using quantization. Our results are severely
affected by systematic errors of the LCT method and the HMI instrument. The
sensitivity of LCT to systematic errors is a concern for Solar Orbiter.
