Overview
This section of the Image Management guide book deals specifically with the challenge of making a large number of browse images available to users (either inside organizations with large image holdings or to customers of these organizations). Browse imagery is used only as a reference to full-resolution imagery. Browse imagery is typically published to provide users the ability to search, review, and order full-resolution content. Typically, browse images are only three-band, usually compressed, and have a lower resolution than the original imagery. Image analysis or interpretation cannot be applied to browse images. Organizations that acquire imagery typically generate lower-resolution browse images based on some level of processing of the full-resolution imagery and generate some form of database to define and manage metadata. In many cases, the extent of the images is also defined typically as using a four-vertex polygon. This browse image workflow assumes that such a set of metadata exists and has been transformed into a feature class.
The workflows defined in this section create the mosaic datasets that reference the images and store the metadata information in a structured form to enable detailed search and display. Image services based on this type of mosaic dataset not only enable a search of imagery based on attributes and location but will also enable previews of the imagery to be displayed in web maps.
Key objectives for this usage of imagery include the following:
- Organize the source data for applications with an easy-to-use interface for end users to quickly find, view, and select images using a web browser or a web application.
- Support tools for efficient sorting of images and appropriate metadata required to endorse image selection based on specific criteria (for example, by attributes such as image date, resolution, cloud cover, look angle, multiple-attribute sort, and so on).
- Fast delivery of the browse images to users.
- Efficient methods for updating the full catalog of browse images as new data becomes available.
Many of the objectives listed above focus on the software application used to query and view browse imagery; however, in this document, you will focus on creating and maintaining the data model required to support this application. An example of an application that provides access to such browse imagery is available at .
This section of the guide book follows the same structure as the Standard Workflow.
Most of the recommendations in this document have been implemented in the sample scripts available for download in the ArcGIS Image Management Workflows on ArcGIS Online. It is recommended that the sample scripts and sample data be downloaded and reviewed in conjunction with this document, as they provide examples of automating the creation of image services with browse imagery and implement many of the best practices defined here.