HiRISE & JPEG-2000 F.A.Q.
Full-resolution HiRISE images are stored in the JPEG2000 format, a relatively new format providing great potential for efficiently handling large images. Since many have not previously used JPEG2000 images, here is a list of resources that might help you read and display our images.
Let us know what works best for you.
What image viewers support the JP2 format?
| Name | Availability | License | Windows | Mac OS X | Linux | UNIX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ExpressView | No Cost | Terms of Use | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Download contains a browser plugin and a more fully-featured application. | ||||||
| GV | Request | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| No-cost licenses are available to the US Government and its contractors. Others will have to request licenses from PAR Government Systems Corporation. | ||||||
| IAS Viewer | No Cost | ? | Yes | No | No | No |
| IrfanView | No Cost | "Freeware" | Yes | No | No | No |
| LuraWave JP2 Geo & LuraWave JP2 | Request | ? | Yes | SDK | SDK | SDK |
| SDK (Software Development Kit) contains command-line tools. | ||||||
| OpenEV | No Cost | LGPL + ? | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| OpenEV is distributed with the FWtools package (whose licensing terms are not specified). | ||||||
Can Adobe Photoshop Handle JP2 Files?
There are two Photoshop plugins that generally work well for all but the largest HiRISE images. Photoshop CS2 comes with a JPEG2000 reader plug-in but it is not automatically installed. The JPEG2000 reader can be found on the installation disk in the directory/file "Goodies/Optional Plug-Ins/Photoshop Only/File Format/JPEG2000.plugin". Copy the plugin to the "/Applications/Adobe Photoshop/ CS2/Plug-Ins/File Formats/ " directory and you should be ready to go.
If you don't have Photoshop CS2 you might try fnord software's plugin (http://www.fnordware.com/j2k/)
What other options are there?
IDL/ENVI Users: the most recent of version of the IDL/ENVI package offers complete JPEG2000 image access capabilities. You might consider upgrading to the most recent IDL release if your current version of IDL does not support JPEG2000 format.
Kakadu (http://www.kakadusoftware.com/): Provides a set of tools for accessing/creating/reformatting JPEG2000 images. As indicated on their web site: "The executables available are for demonstration purposes only. You are free to play around with these executable and even to redistribute them, as long as such use of redistribution is accompanied by this copyright notice." Software is available for Windows 95,98,NT4,2000,XP; Solaris; and Linux platforms. The HiRISE team uses Kakadu software in the production of its JPEG2000 image products.
Mac OS X Systems: If you are patient and have lots of computer memory there are two standard Mac OS X tools, GraphicConverter and Preview, that can read, display, and perform simple image processing on JPEG2000 images. GraphicConverter is slow to load a large image but once loaded, you can quickly pan through the image. GraphicConverter provides simple capabilities such as contrast enhancement and edge sharpening. You can save the image in alternate formats. Preview additionally reads JPEG2000 images but is less capable then GraphicConverter.
Will there be a better way access to HiRISE Images?
The HiRISE project is testing and evaluating the JPIP protocol. JPIP is an interactive streaming protocol that allows for rapid progressive rendering without requiring the entire image to be downloaded.
When the JPIP server is implemented at the HiRISE Operations Center, HiRISE data users will no longer need to read the enormous JPEG2000 images before viewing them. You will be able to efficiently pan and zoom through the image then save to your computer those portions of an image that are of interest to you. We believe this will offer significant access capability to the HiRISE image collection.
Some of the viewers listed in the table above already support JPIP. Additionally, HiRISE has been involved in the development of a cross-platform, free software JPIP client.