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Can Image Server or ArcGIS Server consume imagery from Intergraph's Terrashare?

danan

Can Image Server consume and re-serve imagery from Intergraph's Terrashare product? Or better yet, can ArcGIS Server itself consume imagery from Terrashare? Our photogrammetry department uses Terrashare and we'd prefer not to duplicate their raster data to share it with our ArcGIS Server users. What are my options? Having the other department migrate to Image Server is not presently an option.

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StuartKorte

We have TerraShare also so I'm very interested in the answer. Since Image Server reads directly from the physical files as does TerraShare, why would you want TerraShare as a middle tier unless you are referring to serving the raster backdrops?

danan

We have TerraShare also so I'm very interested in the answer. Since Image Server reads directly from the physical files as does TerraShare, why would you want TerraShare as a middle tier unless you are referring to serving the raster backdrops?

If Terrashare could directly serve WMS map services, that would be one less server to stand-up (we don't currently use Image Server). Although it's an interesting idea to point Image Server directly at the same raw imagery. Wonder if there would be contention issues. We don't need to perform raster analysis. Just need the imagery for basemap purposes.

I'm trying to determine what specific Terrashare product and version our Photogrammetry Dept uses. Seems there are many variants of "Terrashare" (Advanced, Server, Web, Raster, etc) as there are many "ArcGIS" products (Desktop, Server, etc). Which Terrashare product and version do you have?

StuartKorte

There is really own two variants of TerraShare, Server and Advance Server. Advance Server allows for distributed processing. If you have TerraShare server, the TS Web add-on and Geomedia Web Map then you can publish to a WMS.
TS Client and Raster are client apps that allow you to connect to TS Server.

PeterBecker

Yes you can. Its a very valid workflow for organizations that have Intergraph based workflows.
Terrashare ingests and stores the meta information from the DMC cameras and the Intergraph IS* photogrammetry products and handles management of the distribution of different files. It can also be used to manage the processing of imagery into orthos etc and has some dissemination capabilities for the generated orthos. The images them selves are stored as files on disk. Terrashare enables the export of ISAT project files that contain the interior and exterior orientation parameters, camera calibration etc, either directly from the IMU or the result of Aerial Triangulation. These ISAT project files can be used as input to Image Services Definitions (or Mosaic Datasets at V10). Importing these enables the Image server technology to On-the-fly orthorectify and mosaic the imagery. The big advantage being in the time between image acquisition and use is reduced and no additional storage is required. ArcGIS can also handle the 12bit JPEG compressed imagery that is often used for compression of this higher bit depth imagery. My recommendation (if space is an issue) is to JPEG compress the Pan Image, while leaving the MD image (which is much smaller) uncompressed. The use of such image servcies can be of significant benefit for time critical applications as well as QC. IE you can create such a service very quickly after flying and then update it as other processes such as AT are performed. The fact that the technology performs such process as PanSharpening on the fly can considerably reduce disk storage. The on-the-fly processing enables the creation of multiple products such as False Color IR and NDVI. You may already have workflows to generate orthos that are certified by some process and wish to continue to generate these. These resulting orthos can naturally also be served quickly to a very large range of users both using WMS as well as Image Service that provide capabilities such as compression for transmission, dynamic mosaicking to control the overlap of the imagery and detailed metadata. What you need is ArcGIS Server and the Image extension. Note that in V10 the capabilities of reading in ISAT files and creating Mosaic Datasets that perform on-the-fly processing are part of ArcGIS Desktop. You would still require ArcGIS Server and the Image Extension for the serving of the imagery.

danan

Thank you Peter for the detailed and very helpful response. I learned our Photogrammetry Unit is running "Terrashare Server and Advanced Server 2.3.1" by the way. Not sure if this helps or hinders what we'd like to do. Are these Terrashare product versions sufficient for the general workflow(s) you mentioned? Also want to make sure we're ok with the Image extension for ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 (we wouldn't be switching to V10 for quite a while).

The big advantage being in the time between image acquisition and use is reduced and no additional storage is required.

It really does sound like an amazing product. But how scalable is it? I'm sure it functionally does what it does very well, but what's the performance like when you have 100 to 1,000+ concurrent users accessing Image extension Image or WCS services with data being processed on-the-fly? Any good white papers, presentations, or docs on the subject?

Finally, can I use the Image extension to create cached map services? The majority of our user base probably won't need to perform raster analysis with raw pixels. Rather, they need to consume imagery as a backdrop--so "snapshots" are fine.

PeterBecker

I'm not sure which version of Terrashare support what functionality. ISAT project files are a general part of all the Intergraph photogrammetric projects. If your organization is using ISAT for its AT then they will have these ISAT project files, which can be used with or without Terrashare. The ISAT files define the parameters and the location of the files. if the location of the files have changed it can be easily edited by search/replace in ISAT files.
Yes the system is very scalable. Certainly more CPU is used in relation to the serving of pre-cached tiles, but the CPU usage is still relatively small as only the requires pixels (1 screen full are processed). Even with orthorectification and pansharpening this is <1sec on a core. IE A single 4 core system could serve easily 24 concurrent users. (Assuming each users zooms about 1 every 6 seconds). This is a relatively conservative number and is dependant on things including the format of the data. Best is to try it out. The system can be easily scaled by increasing the CPU. Areas of higher interest can also be pre-processed. IE you can specify areas of interest that are likely to be hit more often and pre-generate the orthos in these areas, so increasing the performance. It is possible that your organization wishes to continue doing the orthorectification with a specific product that meets their certification requirements. When these orthos are created they can be used in place of the OTF orthos. If mosaicking can color correction is done this can be added to the same service. IE the grade & performance increases over time. If you wish to have a cached background image just for visualization then yes you can use an Image Service in an MXD and cache this. You can cache the complete service or use on-demand-caching. IE cache is created in advance for the most popular locations and then cache is generated as required when the first users pans to a specific location.

danan

I'm not sure which version of Terrashare support what functionality. ISAT project files are a general part of all the Intergraph photogrammetric projects. If your organization is using ISAT for its AT then they will have these ISAT project files, which can be used with or without Terrashare. The ISAT files define the parameters and the location of the files. if the location of the files have changed it can be easily edited by search/replace in ISAT files.
Yes the system is very scalable. Certainly more CPU is used in relation to the serving of pre-cached tiles, but the CPU usage is still relatively small as only the requires pixels (1 screen full are processed). Even with orthorectification and pansharpening this is <1sec on a core. IE A single 4 core system could serve easily 24 concurrent users. (Assuming each users zooms about 1 every 6 seconds). This is a relatively conservative number and is dependant on things including the format of the data. Best is to try it out. The system can be easily scaled by increasing the CPU. Areas of higher interest can also be pre-processed. IE you can specify areas of interest that are likely to be hit more often and pre-generate the orthos in these areas, so increasing the performance. It is possible that your organization wishes to continue doing the orthorectification with a specific product that meets their certification requirements. When these orthos are created they can be used in place of the OTF orthos. If mosaicking can color correction is done this can be added to the same service. IE the grade & performance increases over time. If you wish to have a cached background image just for visualization then yes you can use an Image Service in an MXD and cache this. You can cache the complete service or use on-demand-caching. IE cache is created in advance for the most popular locations and then cache is generated as required when the first users pans to a specific location.

Thanks Peter. Is pointing Image Server to a file server the only way for Image Server to consume Terrashare imagery? e.g. is there any way for Image Server to make a client connection to Terrashare Server? Or for an MXD / MSD to make a client connection to Terrashare directly?

danan

Anyone else here ever done this?

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