No Data values in Mosaic Dataset

[ErikEndrulat]

I have a large mosaic dataset based on individual rasters of orthophoto quads (LZW compressed TiFF Format). Many of these rasters contain NoData values for pixels within the image extent. By default, when this mosaic is viewed in ArcGIS desktop, the pixels are rendered as an opaque white color. These pixels stand out, and make the resulting image look terrible (see screenshot).
In ArcMap, I know you can specify how the NoData pixels are displayed, but is there a way to change the default NoData color  (e.g., to Black) for the mosaic dataset? If not for the mosaic dataset, the for an image service (we're using AGS Image ext. to publish the data)?

Based on my understanding of the mosaic datasets documentation, the 'Define Mosaic Dataset NoData' tool does not quite do this, it's more intended to create a mask for nodata pixels at the boundaries of an image.

Thanks in advance!

Erik

[larryzhang]

Generally, you can have two ways to solve this issue. Firstly, you can modify the lookup table of raster images and make sure that the min value of the table >0 (saying 1). Besides, you can drape those raster images onto �??Shaded Relief�?? images derived from DEM.

For Option 1, if using mosaic dataset to do so in ArcGIS 10, �??stretch function�?? in Function Chain should be set up properly. Personally, it is very efficient way.

However, in this approach, if some of raster datasets' footprints are irregular, ideally, u should avoid manual editing the boundaries, because of Nodata newly created beyond the image footprints (when not handling correctly). In fact, you can do so via adjusting operation sequence (order). For example, if applying 'stretch function' after 'building footprint' script, you may not need manual editing of the footprints. ...