You display imagery and raster data within your GIS maps and views. Imagery is most commonly created from sensors carried on satellites and aircraft. Raster data sources are also generated and displayed as the results of numerous analytical models—for example, generating a detailed digital elevation model from a terrain dataset or calculating a weighted overlay for analysis.
You often start working with your imagery by adding it to a map document in ArcMap or a 3D display in ArcScene or ArcGlobe. For more information on raster mapping and visualization in ArcGIS, see Key concepts about adding raster data to a map.
The Image Analysis window provides a simplified experience for the analysis and exploitation of image and raster data in ArcMap with a collection of commonly used display capabilities and processes. Use this window to quickly combine bands or clip and image, and easily interact with the tools to improve the display quality of the image.
Increasingly, you are deploying image services on the Web using ArcGIS Server. This makes it easy to open up access to your image data and to openly serve imagery using XML SOAP, REST, WMS, and WCS. For more information, see About serving raster and image data.