New ArcGIS Extension- NITF

ITT Visual Information Solutions today released NITF for ArcGIS, a National Imagery Transmission Format (NITF) extension for ESRI's ArcGIS platform.

NITF for ArcGIS seamlessly integrates with ArcGIS Desktop 9.3, ESRI's latest software release, to provide users with a proven solution for accessing and creating NITF data, a common data format used by federal, defense, and intelligence agencies. The new extension permits geospatial imagery analysts to read and write NITF data within the ArcGIS environment.

The extension also allows analysts to create data products that comply with the NITF specifications and improve the efficiency and timeliness of their workflow. NITF for ArcGIS was tested for compliance by the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) and has been registered for certification at complexity level 7 for NITF 2.1 and complexity level 6 for NITF 2.0 (the highest level for both formats).

"Both ESRI and ITT recognize the need to advance the interoperability of enterprise software tools to improve geospatial and imagery analyst workflows," said Richard Cooke, president and chief operating officer, ITT Visual Information Solutions. "The seamless integration of ITT's NITF tools into ESRI's world-class GIS [geographic information system] platform will simplify analyst workflows, reduce the time to read and write NITF data, and improve the production of time-critical geospatial analysis."

ITT Visual Information Solutions has extensive experience developing NITF products to support its premier image processing platform, ENVI, which is used extensively in the defense and intelligence communities. The ENVI NITF Module has been tested by the JITC and is compliant. The module is also the tool of choice for many government agencies and corporations using geospatial imagery today.

"Teaming with a proven leader like ITT Visual Information Solutions in developing this extension for the ArcGIS platform was a perfect solution to extend our users' imagery capability," said Jack Dangermond, ESRI's president. "ITT's extension complements ESRI's already interoperable standards-driven platform and provides users in the intelligence community, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security with a certified NITF implementation."

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