GeoTIFF Format Specifications
We provide the GeoTIFF format option to enable direct read of our data within generic image processing and graphics packages.
The table below provides details of possible options for all our GeoTIFF products. Note that not all options are available for all sensors, so you should also check the available options for your specific sensor as well, e.g. ALOS is available only in UTM projection with WGS 84 datum.
GeoTIFF product specifications
| Sensor | Landsat 5 TM Landsat 7 ETM+ ALOS PRISM ALOS AVNIR-2 MODIS |
|---|---|
| Spectral bands | All bands, one band as one GeoTIFF file |
| Data type | 8 bit unsigned integer supplied as single bands |
| Processing level | Ortho-corrected and Map oriented image |
| Projections | UTM, Equirectangular (Geographic) and Lambert Conformal Conic (ACRESLC and GALCC) |
| Datums | AGD66, GDA94 and WGS84 |
| Scene size |
Up to Triple scene for Landsat |
| Delivery method | CD-ROM, DVD-R and FTP |
| Price | Same as other formats |
| Radiometric characteristics | Original data is maintained and customers should apply their own image stretching |
NOTE: There is no definitive GeoTIFF format. Not all image processing software will support the geocoding information contained in our GeoTIFF products. The table below identifies the support by commonly used image processing software of the geocoding information contained in our GeoTIFF-format products.
Ability of image processing packages to interpret geocoding metadata contained within our GeoTIFF products
| Projection | UTM | UTM | UTM | EQUIRECTANGULAR | EQUIRECTANGULAR | EQUIRECTANGULAR | LAMBERT CONFORMAL CONIC(ACRESLC) | LAMBERT CONFORMAL CONIC(GALLC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Datum | AGD66 | GDA94 | WGS84 | AGD66 | GDA94 | WGS84 | WGS84 | GDA94 |
| Imagine 8.6 | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | N | Y |
| ERMapper 6.4 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| ER Viewer 2.0e | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| MapInfo | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | Y |
| ArcGIS 8.3 | Y | N | Y | Y | N | Y | N | Y |
| ENVI 4.0 | Y | N | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
To verify GeoTIFF geocoding support by your software a sample of GeoTIFF products can be downloaded from the Satellite Imagery and Product Samples. Please check that cursor location and projection information is displayed correctly for the sample GeoTIFF in your processing package. We strongly encourage you to test this prior to placing image orders.
File Structure
GeoTIFF products contain two files, filename.tif image file and filename.tfw tif world file. The .tfw files contain only the transformation information and .tif files contain the image data for each band.
A .tfw file is a short six line ASCII file.
- pixel x size
- rotation about the y axis
- rotation about the x axis
- pixel y size
- x of upper left pixel
- y of upper left pixel
For example:
- 25 (pixel x size)
- 0 (rotation about the y axis)
- 0 (rotation about the x axis)
- 25 ( pixel y size)
- 656414 (x of upper left pixel)
- 8464763 (y of upper left pixel)
Topic contact: earth.observation@ga.gov.au Last updated: April 17, 2012
