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Aerial imagery raster types

In this topic

  1. ADS
  2. Altum
  3. Applanix imagery
  4. Frame Camera
  5. ISAT imagery
  6. Match-AT imagery
  7. RedEdge
  8. Scanned Aerial Imagery
  9. Table raster type to support digital cameras
  10. UAV/UAS

Raster types supported by ArcGIS Pro are listed in the Raster Type drop-down list in the Add Rasters To Mosaic Dataset tool. If your organization has created its own raster type, or if you have modified the properties for a raster type and saved it, you may need to browse to the .art file to choose it. Raster types can be divided into two groups: those describing files, tables, or web services and those describing products, such as an aerial camera.

Caution:

For all of these raster types, make sure the spatial reference information in the input files and the DEM are the same. If you need to apply a geoid correction to your elevation data, create a mosaic dataset containing the elevation data, and use the Arithmetic function to apply the required equation. For specific steps, see Converting from orthometric to ellipsoidal heights.

ADS

ArcGIS Pro supports the Leica ADS40 and the ADS100 Airborne Sensors. The input file used by this raster type is the .sup files.

When using this raster type, you can edit the raster type properties by clicking the Raster Type Properties button.

For more information about the ADS airborne sensor, see Leica airborne systemsLeica airborne systems.

Altum

MicaSense Altum produces multispectral, thermal and high-resolution imagery from a multi-sensor system. The input files used by this raster type are the .tif files for the bands, one from each sensor, including five multispectral bands (blue, green, red, red edge, near-infrared) and one thermal band.

When adding Altum data to a mosaic dataset, files will be filtered to search for the following extensions: *_1.tif, *_2.tif, *_3.tif, *_4.tif, *_5.tif, *_6.tif. Additionally, three processing templates are supported: All bands, Multispectral, and Thermal. The All bands and Multispectral templates can process pixels into radiance or surface reflectance using the information from the imagery. The Thermal template processes pixels into degrees Celsius.

Applanix imagery

The Applanix DSS is a medium format, digital airborne remote sensing system, using integrated inertial technology to produce georeferenced color and color infrared (CIR) imagery. The main input file used by this raster type is the Applanix DSS eo_std.txt file. When using this raster type, you must edit the raster type properties by clicking the Raster Type Properties button.

  1. Create a mosaic dataset.
  2. In the Catalog pane, right-click the mosaic dataset and click Add Rasters.

    The Add Rasters to Mosaic Dataset tool opens.

  3. Click the Raster Type drop-down list and click Applanix.
  4. Click the Edit Raster Type Properties button.

    The Raster Type Properties dialog box appears. Here you will enter specific information about the DEM and the camera.

  5. Click the Camera Definition tab to define the camera information, which is often found in a file supplied by the data or camera vendor.
  6. Click the Camera Model drop-down arrow and make a selection.

    This will set any predefined parameters for the chosen camera model. The following camera models are available:

    Camera modelDefaults

    DSS 322

    • Number of Pixels (Columns): 5436
    • Number of Lines (Rows): 4092
    • Pixel Size (Microns): 9

    DSS 439

    • Number of Pixels (Columns): 7216
    • Number of Lines (Rows): 5412
    • Pixel Size (Microns): 6.8
    Applanix DSS camera models

  7. Enter a value for Focal Length and choose the appropriate units.
  8. Enter the principal point of autocollimation along the x-axis in the PPA X text box and choose the appropriate units.
  9. Enter the principal point of autocollimation along the y-axis in the PPA Y text box and choose the appropriate units.
  10. Click the Type of Distortion drop-down arrow , and choose either Konrady Coefficients or Radial Distortions.
    • If you choose Radial Distortions, a table will appear where you can enter the values provided in the camera calibration report. This is the recommended method. Once you've entered the values in this table, you can view the calculated coefficients by changing the Type of Distortion method to Konrady Coefficients.
    • If you choose Radial Distortions, you need to click the Radial Lense Distortion Coefficient Method drop-down arrow and choose one of the options:
      • Konrady (Esri)
      • Konrady (USGS)

      This may already have been applied by the camera's postprocessing software. Verify that this distortion value is needed. If it is not needed, leave the 0 value defaults.

      ArcGIS uses Konrady coefficients to calculate radial distortion correction for standard-frame cameras. These coefficients model the radial distortion as a function of the radial distance from the center (r) as a power sequence. There are two ways these coefficients can be applied: USGS Konrady and Esri Konrady. They differ in how they use the coefficients, so the method used should match the way the coefficients were derived.

      The Esri equation is 

      error = K1 + K2 * r2 + K3 * r4

      The USGS equation is 

      error = K1 + K2 * r3 + K3 * r5

      where K1, K2, and K3 are Konrady coefficients and r is the radial distance from the center.

  11. Click the General tab.
  12. Check your exterior orientation file. If the extension is not .txt, you must enter it in the Filter text box. For example, if it is .dat, change .txt to .dat.
  13. Optionally click the Save As button to save these changes to the raster type by saving the raster type to a file that can be reused in place of the Applanix raster type in the drop-down list.
  14. Click the Processing tab to set the properties to define the elevation model used in the orthorectification of the imagery.

    The following are tips for using a DEM:

    • If your DEM is smaller than the extent of the collection of images, the images will be cropped to the extent of the DEM. Also, the DEM impacts the orthorectification, so it is best if the DEM is at least as large, in extent, as the collection of images.
    • Make sure the spatial reference system in the exterior orientation file and the DEM are the same; otherwise, you may have to modify the DEM by either checking the Geoid check box or entering z offset and factor values. Optionally, you can apply a geoid correction to your elevation data by creating a mosaic dataset containing the elevation data and using the Arithmetic function to apply the required equation.

    • You can use a DEM stored as a raster dataset (in any ArcGIS-supported raster format), stored in a raster catalog, a mosaic dataset, an image service, or a WCS service.

    • If you have multiple DEM raster datasets you can add them to a mosaic dataset to create a single dataset that can be used as the DEM.

    • If the format has a NoData value, it is supported. You can verify the NoData value in the raster properties of your raster dataset. If you need to convert a value to NoData, use the Copy Raster tool and define a value for the NoData Value parameter. This tool will output a new raster dataset. If you do not want to create a new raster dataset, you can add your DEM to a mosaic dataset and use the Define Mosaic Dataset NoData tool to define the NoData value. Using this method you can define more than one value to be interpreted as NoData.

  15. Click the Orthorectification drop-down arrow to choose one of the following elevation methods:
    DEM

    Choose the DEM from the raster dataset, mosaic dataset, image service, or WCS service you want to use for orthorectification.

    Constant elevation

    Enter the value of the constant (average) elevation for the area covered by the images.

    Average Elevation from Image Metadata

    Average elevation does not apply to Applanix data; therefore, do not use this.

    Average Elevation from DEM

    Average elevation does not apply to Applanix data; therefore, do not use this.

  16. Optionally, you may need to set some elevation adjustment parameters if the DEM option was chosen.

    Z offset

    The base value to be added to the elevation value in the DEM. This could be used to offset elevation values that do not start at sea level.

    Z factor

    The z-factor is a scaling factor used to convert the elevation values for two purposes:

    • To convert the elevation units (such as meters or feet) to the horizontal coordinate units of the dataset, which may be feet, meters, or degrees.
    • To add vertical exaggeration for visual effect.

  17. Click the Auxiliary Inputs tab.
  18. Click the browse button, navigate to the folder containing the input images, and click OK.
  19. Click OK to close the Raster Type Properties dialog box.
  20. Click the Input drop-down arrow and click File.
  21. Click the browse button, browse to the exterior orientation file .txt, and click Open.

    The text file is added to the Source list.

  22. There may be some additional information you need to define in the Advanced Options section, although it is not always necessary.
    1. If the spatial reference for the input data is different than the mosaic dataset, you will need to define it with the Coordinate system for Input Data parameter.
    2. If the data does not have pyramids or statistics, you can calculate them by checking Build Raster Pyramids and Calculate Statistics. This is highly recommended.
  23. Click OK to run the tool and add the data to the mosaic dataset.

The footprints created are simple polygons to define the four corners of the unorthorectified image. You should modify the footprints to match the shape of the orthorectified image before building overviews. These steps are shown next.

Recalculating the footprints

  1. Open the Build Footprints tool.
  2. Browse to the mosaic dataset, or click the Mosaic Dataset drop-down arrow to choose the mosaic dataset layer.
  3. Change the Minimum Data Value and Maximum Data Value low and high extents of the bit depth, such as 0 and 255 for 8-bit data.
  4. To shrink the footprints, specify a Shrink Distance value.

    This value is specified in the units of the mosaic dataset's coordinate system and will reduce the overall size of each footprint polygon.

  5. Click OK to run the tool.

Build overviews

  1. Open the Build Overviews tool.
  2. Browse to the mosaic dataset, or click the Mosaic Dataset drop-down arrow to choose the mosaic dataset layer.
  3. Click OK to run the tool.

The overviews will take some time to generate. Once completed, the mosaic dataset is ready to use.

Frame Camera

The Frame Camera raster type allows you to add raster data captured by various aerial cameras (such as Pictometry, UltraCam, Applanix, and ISAT) to a mosaic dataset.

This raster type requires you to provide two tables, the frames table and the cameras table. The frames table contains camera information specific to each frame such as the frame camera image path and the perspective X/Y/Z coordinate. The cameras table contains camera-specific parameters such as focal length and the principle point coordinate X/Y. You need to extract this information from the frame camera metadata file and populate the information into the frames table and the cameras table To see which fields are recognized for the frames table, see Frames table schema. To see which fields are recognized for the cameras table, see Cameras table schema.

Once the required fields are generated in the tables, you can use the frames and cameras tables as input in the Add Rasters To Mosaic Dataset tool to ingest images to the mosaic dataset. Assign the frames table as the input for the tool and define the cameras table path on the Frame Camera raster type properties page.

ISAT imagery

ImageStation Automatic Triangulation (ISAT) is an automatic image point extraction and triangulation package from Intergraph. Both analog and digital cameras are supported. The input file used by this raster type is the ISAT project file.

ISAT data can be added to a mosaic dataset using the ISAT raster type.

  1. Create a mosaic dataset.
  2. In the Catalog pane, right-click the mosaic dataset and click Add Rasters.

    The Add Rasters to Mosaic Dataset tool opens.

  3. Click the Raster Type drop-down list and click ISAT.
  4. Click the Edit Raster Type Properties button.

    The Raster Type Properties dialog box appears. Here you will enter specific information about the DEM and the camera.

  5. Click the Properties tab.

    This tab allows you to specify the properties that will define the elevation model used in the orthorectification of the imagery.

    Tip:

    Make sure the spatial reference system in the exterior orientation file and the DEM are the same; otherwise, you may have to modify the DEM by either checking the Geoid check box or entering z offset and factor values.

  6. Click the Orthorectification drop-down to choose one of the elevation methods:

    Average Elevation from Image Metadata

    The average elevation is read from the project file.

    Average Elevation from DEM

    The average elevation is read from the DEM provided.

    Constant elevation

    Enter the value of the constant (average) elevation for the area covered by the images.

    DEM

    Choose the DEM from the raster dataset, mosaic dataset, image service, or WCS service you want to use for orthorectification.

    If you need to apply a geoid correction to your elevation data, create a mosaic dataset containing the elevation data and use the Arithmetic function to apply the required equation.

  7. Optionally, you may need to set some elevation adjustment parameters if the DEM option was chosen.

    Z offset

    The base value to be added to the elevation value in the DEM. This could be used to offset elevation values that do not start at sea level.

    Z factor

    The z-factor is a scaling factor used to convert the elevation values for two purposes:

    • To convert the elevation units (such as meters or feet) to the horizontal coordinate units of the dataset, which may be feet, meters, or degrees.
    • To add vertical exaggeration for visual effect.

  8. Click the Auxiliary Inputs tab.
  9. Click the Photo File browse button and browse to the ISAT photo file.
  10. Click the Camera File browse button and browse to the ISAT camera file.
  11. Click OK.
  12. Optionally click the General tab.

    By clicking the Save As button, you can save the changes made to the raster type so it can be reused at another time.

    To use the .art file you save, you can browse to it rather than choosing ISAT in the Raster Type list.

  13. Click OK.
  14. Click the Input drop-down arrow and click File.
  15. Click the Browse button, browse to the ISAT project file, and click Open.

    The text file is added to the Source list.

  16. Optionally click the General tab.

    By clicking the Save As button, you can save the changes made to the raster type so it can be reused at another time.

    To use the .art file you save, you can browse to it rather than choosing ISAT in the Raster Type list.

  17. Optionally, if you won't be recalculating the footprints, you can check Update Overviews.

    You may want to shrink the footprints. If so, don't check Update Overviews; complete running this tool. Use the Build Footprints tool and specify a value for Shrink Distance. Also, change the maximum and minimum data values to the highs and lows of the bit depth, such as 0 and 255 for 8-bit data. Finally, you can build overviews using the Build Overviews tool.

  18. There may be some additional details you need to define within the Advanced Options section, although they are not always necessary.
    1. If the spatial reference for the input data is different from the mosaic dataset, you will need to define one with the Coordinate system for Input Data parameter.
    2. If the data does not have pyramids or statistics, you calculate them by checking Build Raster Pyramids and Calculate Statistics.
  19. Click OK to run the tool and add the data to the mosaic dataset.

Match-AT imagery

MATCH-AT Trimble Inpho is an automatic digital aerial triangulation package from Trimble Inpho. Both analog and digital cameras are supported. The input file used by this raster type is the MATCH-AT project file.

Match-AT data can be added to a mosaic dataset using the Match-AT raster type.

  1. Create a mosaic dataset.
  2. In the Catalog pane, right-click the mosaic dataset and click Add Rasters.

    The Add Rasters to Mosaic Dataset tool opens.

  3. Click the Raster Type drop-down list and click Match-AT.
  4. Click the Edit Raster Type Properties button.

    The Raster Type Properties dialog box appears. Here you will enter specific information about the DEM and the camera.

  5. Click the Properties tab.

    This tab allows you to specify the properties that will define the elevation model used in the orthorectification of the imagery.

    Tip:

    Make sure the spatial reference system in the exterior orientation file and the DEM are the same; otherwise, you may have to modify the DEM by either checking the Geoid check box or entering z offset and factor values.

  6. Click the Orthorectification drop-down to choose one of the elevation methods:

    Average Elevation from Image Metadata

    The average elevation is read from the project file.

    Average Elevation from DEM

    The average elevation is read from the DEM provided.

    Constant elevation

    Enter the value of the constant (average) elevation for the area covered by the images.

    DEM

    Choose the DEM from the raster dataset, mosaic dataset, image service, or WCS service you want to use for orthorectification.

    If you need to apply a geoid correction to your elevation data, create a mosaic dataset containing the elevation data and use the Arithmetic function to apply the required equation.

  7. Optionally, you may need to set some elevation adjustment parameters if the DEM option was chosen.

    Z offset

    The base value to be added to the elevation value in the DEM. This could be used to offset elevation values that do not start at sea level.

    Z factor

    The z-factor is a scaling factor used to convert the elevation values for two purposes:

    • To convert the elevation units (such as meters or feet) to the horizontal coordinate units of the dataset, which may be feet, meters, or degrees.
    • To add vertical exaggeration for visual effect.

  8. Click the Auxiliary Inputs tab.
  9. Click the Camera browse button, browse to the camera file, and click Open.

    This is an optional parameter and must be specified if the camera information is not in the project file.

    Note:

    If a MATCH-AT version 5 project has the camera information embedded, an external camera file is not required. MATCH-AT projects of other versions must have an external camera file.

  10. Click OK.
  11. Click the Input drop-down arrow and click File.
  12. Click the browse button, browse to the Match-AT project file (.prj), and click Open.

    The project file is added to the Source list.

  13. Optionally click the General tab.

    By clicking the Save As button, you can save the changes made to the raster type so it can be reused at another time.

    To use the .art file you save, you can browse to it rather than selecting Match-AT in the Raster Type list.

  14. Optionally, if you won't be recalculating the footprints, you can check Update Overviews.

    You may want to shrink the footprints. If so, don't check Update Overviews; complete running this tool. Use the Build Footprints tool and specify a value for Shrink Distance. Also, change the maximum and minimum data values to the highs and lows of the bit depth, such as 0 and 255 for 8-bit data. Finally, you can build overviews using the Build Overviews tool.

  15. There may be some additional details you need to define within the Advanced Options section, although they are not always necessary.
    1. If the spatial reference for the input data is different from the mosaic dataset, you will need to define one with the Coordinate system for Input Data parameter.
    2. If the data does not have pyramids or statistics, you calculate them by checking Build Raster Pyramids and Calculate Statistics.
  16. Click OK to run the tool and add the data to the mosaic dataset.

RedEdge

MicaSense RedEdge produces multispectral and high-resolution imagery from a multi-sensor system. The input files used by this raster type are the .tif files for the bands, one from each sensor including five multispectral bands (blue, green, red, red edge, near-infrared).

When adding RedEdge data to a mosaic dataset, files will be filtered to search for the following extensions: *_1.tif, *_2.tif, *_3.tif, *_4.tif, *_5.tif. Additionally, two processing templates are supported: All bands and Multispectral. These templates can process pixels into radiance or surface reflectance using the information from the imagery.

Scanned Aerial Imagery

The Scanned Aerial Imagery raster type is designed for creating mosaic datasets from scanned aerial photos. The Frame Camera raster type can also add scanned aerial photos to a mosaic dataset; however, the Scanned Aerial Imagery raster type will add an image property that is used in the block adjustment process to choose the most appropriate properties and algorithms.

This raster type requires you to provide two tables, the frames table and the cameras table. The frames table contains camera information specific to each frame such as the frame camera image path and the perspective X/Y/Z coordinate. The cameras table contains camera-specific parameters such as focal length and the principle point coordinate X/Y. You need to extract this information from the frame camera metadata file and populate the information into the frames table and the cameras table To see which fields are recognized for the frames table, see Frames table schema. To see which fields are recognized for the cameras table, see Cameras table schema.

  1. Create a mosaic dataset.
  2. In the Catalog pane, right-click the mosaic dataset and click Add Rasters.

    The Add Rasters to Mosaic Dataset tool opens.

  3. Click the Raster Type drop-down list and click Scanned Aerial Imagery.
  4. Click the Edit Raster Type Properties button.

    The Raster Type Properties dialog box appears. Here you will enter specific information about the DEM and the camera.

  5. Click the Properties tab.

    This tab allows you to specify the properties that will define the elevation model used in the orthorectification of the imagery.

    Tip:

    Make sure the spatial reference system in the exterior orientation file and the DEM are the same; otherwise, you may have to modify the DEM by either checking the Geoid check box or entering z offset and factor values.

  6. Click the Orthorectification drop-down to choose one of the elevation methods:

    Average Elevation from Image Metadata

    The average elevation is read from the project file.

    Average Elevation from DEM

    The average elevation is read from the DEM provided.

    Constant elevation

    Enter the value of the constant (average) elevation for the area covered by the images.

    DEM

    Choose the DEM from the raster dataset, mosaic dataset, image service, or WCS service you want to use for orthorectification.

    If you need to apply a geoid correction to your elevation data, create a mosaic dataset containing the elevation data and use the Arithmetic function to apply the required equation.

  7. Optionally, you may need to set some elevation adjustment parameters if the DEM option was chosen.

    Z offset

    The base value to be added to the elevation value in the DEM. This could be used to offset elevation values that do not start at sea level.

    Z factor

    The z-factor is a scaling factor used to convert the elevation values for two purposes:

    • To convert the elevation units (such as meters or feet) to the horizontal coordinate units of the dataset, which may be feet, meters, or degrees.
    • To add vertical exaggeration for visual effect.

  8. Click the Frame Camera tab.
  9. Add the cameras table.
  10. Optionally click the General tab.

    By clicking the Save As button, you can save the changes made to the raster type so it can be reused at another time.

    To use the .art file you save, you can browse to it rather than selecting Scanned Aerial Raster in the Raster Type list.

  11. Click OK to return to the Add Rasters to Mosaic Dataset pane.
  12. For the Input Data parameter, click the browse button and select the frames table.
  13. Optionally, if you won't be recalculating the footprints, you can check Update Overviews.

    You may want to shrink the footprints. If so, don't check Update Overviews; complete running this tool. Use the Build Footprints tool and specify a value for Shrink Distance. Also, change the maximum and minimum data values to the highs and lows of the bit depth, such as 0 and 255 for 8-bit data. Finally, you can build overviews using the Build Overviews tool.

  14. There may be some additional details you need to define within the Advanced Options section, although they are not always necessary.
    1. If the spatial reference for the input data is different from the mosaic dataset, you will need to define one with the Coordinate system for Input Data parameter.
    2. If the data does not have pyramids or statistics, you calculate them by checking Build Raster Pyramids and Calculate Statistics.
  15. Click OK to run the tool and add the data to the mosaic dataset.

Table raster type to support digital cameras

The Table raster type can be used to add any digital standard frame imagery to a mosaic dataset. This approach requires a table containing orientation parameters and other variables. The Table raster type can also be used to migrate a raster catalog to a mosaic dataset.

The following workflow adds UltraCam data into a mosaic dataset.

  1. Create a mosaic dataset.
  2. In the Catalog pane, right-click the mosaic dataset and click Add Rasters.

    The Add Rasters to Mosaic Dataset tool opens.

  3. Click the Raster Type drop-down list and click Table/Raster Catalog.
  4. Click the Edit Raster Type Properties button.
  5. Click the Processing tab.
  6. Click the Processing Template drop‐down arrow and click Stretch. The Ultracam data is 16 bit, therefore, you need to define a stretch for the imagery to display properly; otherwise, it will all appear black.
  7. Click the Input Table Definition tab. Here, you will define the field names in your table that match the fields this Table raster type requires.
  8. For the Raster Source field, type Rastersrc.
  9. For the Name field, type Frame.
  10. Click OK to return to the Add Rasters to Mosaic Dataset pane.
  11. For the Input Data parameter, click the browse button and select the .dbf table.
  12. Click OK to run the tool and add the data to the mosaic dataset.

UAV/UAS

The UAV/UAS raster type is designed to add aerial photos that were taken with an unmanned aerial vehicle or an unmanned aerial system. This type of imagery doesn't usually contain complete camera interior orientation information. The UAV/UAS raster type contains a camera model database that can help obtain such information by reading the camera model from the UAV/UAS image's EXIF header. In addition, this raster type also supports UAV/UAS photos that are processed by third-party software Pix4D and Agisoft. It can directly use the exported log file from the software as camera file or auxiliary file input in the raster type properties.

For this raster type, there are two additional tabs in the Raster Type Properties as follows:

  • Auxiliary Inputs—GPS or exterior orientation parameters of each image. The user can provide an estimated flight height if such information is available. Both Orientation File and Flight Height parameters are optional.
  • Frame Camera—This tab contains the camera model information. The user can either give a custom *.cam file that contains the camera interior orientation information or select from the Camera Maker and Camera Model list.

Related topics

  • Cameras table schema
  • Frames table schema
  • Build Frames and Cameras Tables Tool
  • Create an ortho mapping workspace for digital aerial imagery
  • Create an ortho mapping workspace for scanned aerial imagery
  • Create Mosaic Dataset

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In this topic
  1. ADS
  2. Altum
  3. Applanix imagery
  4. Frame Camera
  5. ISAT imagery
  6. Match-AT imagery
  7. RedEdge
  8. Scanned Aerial Imagery
  9. Table raster type to support digital cameras
  10. UAV/UAS