Managing Preprocessed Orthophotos

Preprocessed orthophotos (or orthomosaics) are images with map-like accuracy, generated from satellite, aerial or drone imagery, that have been orthorectified and mosaicked together for a single project. An orthophoto collection may include imagery from a single date, or (for larger projects) imagery may be collected over the course of a year. They are often color-corrected and may be cut into a set of regular tiles (NAIP imagery is a common example). Tiles may overlap, but are typically edge-matched. Orthomosaics from drone imagery will often have areas of black NoData around the edge of the project.

Organizations often manage large collections of orthophotos with different dates, locations, projections, or resolutions, which can be challenging.

Using a mosaic dataset configured to manage orthophotos makes it easier to visualize, query, and analyze large collections of orthophotos. It also make it simpler to share orthophotos with end users and applications. Orthophotos managed with mosaic datasets can be shared two ways:

1. They can be shared as a three-band, 8-bit raster tile cache (like Esri basemaps). The cache can be created in ArcGIS Pro, then uploaded to ArcGIS Online for hosting and sharing.
2. If end users will need dynamic access to the imagery (if there are more than three bands, for example, or you want to take advantage of raster functions to include NIR, RGB, and NDVI views), orthophotos can be served as image services using ArcGIS Image Server.

Explore the following resources to learn more about managing preprocessed orthophotos.

Note:

To create and edit mosaic datasets or raster tile cache, you'll need ArcGIS Desktop (Standard or Advanced license). To serve mosaic datasets as dynamic image services, you'll need ArcGIS Image Server. To host raster tile cache, you can use ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Server.

Top Esri picks

Helpful resources if you aren't sure where to start:

• Managing Preprocessed Orthophotos best practices (Imagery Workflows)
• Sample Python scripts for managing preprocessed orthophotos (Imagery Workflows)

ArcGIS Help documentation

Reference material for ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, and ArcGIS Enterprise:

• Mosaic datasets (ArcGIS Pro)
• Tile cache toolset overview (ArcGIS Pro)

Imagery Workflows resources

Community-supported tools and best practices for working with imagery and automating workflows:

• Managing Preprocessed Orthophotos best practices
• Sample Python scripts for managing preprocessed orthophotos
• Sample data to use with sample scripts
• Custom geoprocessing tools for supporting raster tile cache
• Standard Image Management workflow

Esri Training resources

Authoritative learning resources from Esri on key ArcGIS skills:

• Managing Raster Data Using ArcGIS (2-hr Web Course)

Developer resources

Resources and support for automating and customizing workflows:

• Mosaic Dataset Configuration Script (MDCS) GitHub repo
• Manage rasters in the cloud with OptimizeRasters

Geonet

Online places for the Esri community to connect, collaborate, and share experiences:

• Discuss this workflow with the imagery community