Projection imagery

Question

Hi,

Help! I seem to have forgotten how to project imagery to its correct location on a map. I have a .jpg image of Mountain Pass, CA (see attached) but when I try to add it to a map, it either shows up in Kansas on somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I've tried defining the base map projection as well as defining the projection of the image (CA State Plane Zone V) but no luck.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Jim

mountainpassmine5.jpg

danretired · Accepted Answer

Define Projection (Data Management)—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

Note from the above

Overwrites the coordinate system information (map projection and datum) stored with a dataset. This tool is intended for datasets that have an unknown or incorrect coordinate system defined.

So it must be defined correctly as to what it is... not what you want it to be.

Once you have defined it correctly then you can project it to a different coordinate system.

Project Raster (Data Management)—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

So your problem is to figure out what it is first by adding it to an empty map... no basemap, nothing.  Then examine the extents of the layer to determine whether it has a coordinate system or is just an image which needs to be georeferenced to provide real world coordinates.

Georeference a raster to a referenced layer—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

bbooth · Accepted Answer

These two tutorials may also be helpful for you:

https://learn.arcgis.com/en/projects/fix-data-when-it-appears-in-the-wrong-place/

https://learn.arcgis.com/en/projects/georeference-imagery-in-arcgis-pro/