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Exporting ISIS Data


Naturally, once you're finished processing your image data, and you have your final product, you'll want to use it in reports, papers, posters, web pages, your favorite Geographic Information System (GIS) or image analysis package, or simply share it with others. Since many other software packages can't read ISIS cube format, you'll want to export your cube to a file type appropriate to your needs.

General Purpose: Desktop Applications and Web

isis2std (ISIS to Standard formats) exports your cubes to a wide variety of popular image formats, such as PNG (Portable Network Graphics) and TIFF (Tagged Image File Format). No matter what desktop application you're using (Word Perfect, Illustrator, or GIMP, just to name a few), or what you're creating (posters, web pages, or a pretty background for your desktop), isis2std will handle it.

GIS and Image Analysis Applications

But the icing on the cake is that isis2std also exports the necessary files for taking your image into GIS! If your cube has mapping labels, isis2std will write a world file that provides GIS software, and other software which can take advantage of a geographically registered image, with the necessary information to properly display your image. Most applications designed to work with remotely sensed and map data (such as Arc products, Envi, and Global Mapper) can use TIFF, JPEG, and other images with world files. Several geographic software applications even have support for planetary data.

Exporting to FITS

isis2fits (ISIS to FITS format) exports your cubes to Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) format, a standard in the astronomical community. There's lots of software designed to work with FITS (even a few common applications and software libraries , like ImageMagick and GIMP). In general, FITS format is useful for mission team members who are working with cruise data to analyze instrument calibration, camera pointing, and other factors. Since cruise image data frequently contain stars, astronomy software comes in quite useful for this type of work.

Exporting to RAW

isis2raw (ISIS to Raw format) exports an individual band in your cube to raw image format, a minimal format that contains just the data in the bit-type of your choosing. isis2raw is a good choice when none of the other formats ISIS can export to will work for you. In order to import a raw image into another application, you will need to know the width (samples), height (rows), bit-type, and endianness of your raw file in order to import it correctly, so remember to keep track of the parameters you used to export your cube.

See the following ISIS documentation for information about the applications you will need to use to perform this procedure:

  • isis2std : Export a cube to popular image formats, such as TIFF and PNG, with GIS world files
  • isis2fits : Export a cube to FITS format, the standard image format of the astronomical community
  • isis2raw : Export a cube to raw format