View IKONOS rasters in ArcGIS Desktop

Summary

Instructions provided describe how to view IKONOS rasters in ArcGIS Desktop.

IKONOS rasters are stored with an 11-bit pixel depth. The range of values for the pixels of this raster can range from 0 - 2047. However, ArcGIS recognizes this pixel depth as 16-bit with a possible range of values of 0 - 65535. Because most of the values in the 11-bit range fall in the lower portion of the 16-bit range, the IKONOS raster will display as black to very dark by default in ArcGIS.

Procedure

• Use the Calculate Statistics tool in ArcToolbox, and specify the Ignore value = 65535 to calculate the statistics stored in the .aux file.
  
  See the link in the Related Information section for help on the Calculate Statistics tool.
• Once the statistics are calculated, the raster should display with proper brightness and contrast in ArcGIS. The Effects toolbar can be used to adjust the brightness and contrast further.
  

  Note:
  It may be necessary to first delete the raster's .aux file for this option to function properly. This file is named FILENAME.aux, where FILENAME is the same name as the IKONOS Raster.