The type of data expressed through the NITF format can vary considerably, and that can make it difficult to determine what products are within the NITF structure. ArcGIS navigates through various image support data (ISD), inspects the properties, determines what type of product is present, and presents appropriate names for specific products in the Contents pane, menus, and dialog boxes. The result of this product detection system is the NITF raster product, clearly identifying the type of products in the file.
NITF products are organized hierarchically, simulating how data is organized in an NITF file. NITF files appear in the Catalog pane as 
. In the file, NITF products appear as raster items 
. This hierarchical organization is displayed in the Catalog pane. In each product, you can query the data by browsing to each individual data component, such as raster, feature, table, and so forth. These data components are supported throughout ArcGIS by geoprocessing tools, raster functions, ArcPy, and other functionality.
In addition to presenting a view of products in NITF files, NITF products also help streamline visualization workflows by setting various display properties best suited to the specific products. These properties include default feature symbology, raster symbology, band ordering, stretch type, and other display enhancement properties.
For well-defined NITF data, the specific NITF products are listed in the Catalog pane when the file is expanded under the Generic heading. This amounts to NITF data that conforms to various implementation specifications, such as the NITF Commercial Dataset Requirements Document (NCDRD). There are several implementation specifications that are supported. The examples below are a few of the NITF products that are supported based on the NCDRD specification.
¹ Pre-Processed (also known as Radiometrically Corrected)—Basic level of image processing to provide radiometric and sensor corrections
² Georectified—Radiometric and sensor corrections as well as projection to a constant terrain elevation
³ Orthorectified—Radiometric and sensor corrections as well as additional image processing to remove terrain relief displacement using digital elevation models
In cases in which NITF ISD fields and values are unknown or unidentifiable, the Generic NITF product is used. This product provides a full view of all the data contained in an NITF, but does not have any of the additional display property enhancements applied. In these cases, you may be need to manually change band combinations, stretch type, or other image enhancements to visualize the data correctly.