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Problem displaying US Forest Service GeoTiffs in ArcGIS 10.2

Anonymous User

Original User: mwestra2

US Forest Service GeoTiff Topo Maps downloaded from their site aren't displaying correctly in ArcMap. An example of one of their maps is here: http://data.fs.usda.gov/geodata/rastergateway/data/47121/fstopo/470012130_Sun_Top_FSTopo.zip. Other GeoTiffs I download from other sites all seem to work fine (e.g. from USGS site). I can even re-save the USFS GeoTiff as a regular .tif file and then manually georeference it and it and then that works fine as well.

Here's what it looks like in ArcMap : [ATTACH=CONFIG]34966[/ATTACH]

Here's what it's supposed to look like: [ATTACH=CONFIG]34967[/ATTACH]

I've tried different projections and re-sampling. Can anyone help here? My knowledge of raster technology is very limited.

Thanks!

CaptureBad.JPG

CaptureGood.jpg

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JoshuaBixby

When it comes to discrete raster data, especially color maps, I have always thought ArcMap's rendering engine falls short. Looking at how a section of 470012130.tif renders on my screen between Windows Photo Viewer and ArcMap.

Windows Photo Viewer:

ArcMap:

Granted, Windows Photo Viewer is treating the image as RGB while ArcMap is dealing with the color map, but it just seems the quality difference shouldn't be this pronounced.

JoshuaBixby

Switching to bilinear could make things worse in this case because the data is discrete, even densely discrete. Bilinear resampling is more for continuous data, and even the Improving the display of raster data help page is really geared toward continuous data and not discrete data.

JoshuaBixby

The ZIP file you reference has 2 TIFs. Both are georeferenced, although only one of them has the term "geo" in it. Looking at the TIFF image metadata shows the following, and ArcMap shows the same information.

470012130_geo.tif: Geographic, NAD83
470012130.tif: Projected, NAD83 UTM zone 10N

Which image are you having problems with? And what is the projection of the data frame?

Your "good" capture didn't come through as an attachment so I am not clear on what you are expecting to see.

MikeWestra

Tried... Still no dice getting those to display, print or export without having to use a huge map (at least 50"x50").

Anonymous User

Original User: lpinner

Looks like ArcMap doesn't handle resampling colour mapped single band rasters very well. I got it displaying ok by converting from colour map to RGB (Copy Raster (Data Management) tool) then building pyramids (Build Pyramids (Data Management) tool) with bilinear resampling.

MikeWestra

What is the coordinate system of your data frame? Have you tried loading the tiff into a new ArcMap session?

Yep. Also tried changing to several different projections / coordinate systems. Doesn't seem to matter.

Here's something I just found... if I create a huge map -- 50"x50" or greater -- and zoom in to 1:5000 to get the extent that I want, then it exports to a reasonable quality JPG or PDF maps. But of course... it's huge and takes forever to export.

Anonymous User

Original User: lpinner

What is the coordinate system of your data frame? Have you tried loading the tiff into a new ArcMap session?

MikeWestra

In the layer properties (double click the tiff layer in the ArcMap table of contents), go to the Display tab and change the resampling from Nearest to Bilinear. See "Display resampling" in the ArcGIS Help doc - Improving the display of raster data.

Thanks, I did actually tried that and it does change the appearance on the display and what ends up in an exported PDF or JPG map, but still doesn't do it. The image ends up distorted in a different way.

And I tried resampling different ways but can't figure it out. I didn't know about the Image Analysis window, though. Played around with that quite a bit and can't get anything to improve the image.

MikeWestra

The site must contain metadata describing the coordinate system used. Do you know what it is?

Thanks for the quick reply. Yep, GCS North American 1983 NAD83. From the metadata page (http://data.fs.usda.gov/geodata/rastergateway/states-regions/metadata_geotiff.php): "The images are generated at 600 dpi using ESRI's PLTS MPS Atlas software and can easily be used in GIS and other spatially-referenced applications. The GeoTIFF maps will be cast on the Universal Transverse Mercator Projection (UTM) and the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). "

I've tried projecting to different coordinate systems, but no change.

Anonymous User

Original User: lpinner

In the layer properties (double click the tiff layer in the ArcMap table of contents), go to the Display tab and change the resampling from Nearest to Bilinear. See "Display resampling" in the ArcGIS Help doc - Improving the display of raster data.

DanPatterson_Retired

The site must contain metadata describing the coordinate system used. Do you know what it is?

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