HiRISE | JPEG2000 Images

Full-resolution HiRISE images are stored in the JPEG2000 (JP2) 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*:

IAS Viewer: A Java application that once installed, launches using Java WebStart Technology. This free HiRISE Client runs on Windows XP and Mac OS X (PPC/Intel Tiger).
There is currently no client for Linux.
To install the viewer, click here.
You must have Java Run Time Environment installed on your machine to use the Java WebStart. If you have it installed, your computer will start the viewer automatically; no need to do anything else.
If you do not have a Java Run Time Environment installed, you can download it from here (Solaris/Windows).
Mac OS X users can grab the download from here.

ExpressView: A JPEG2000 (JP2) viewer application freely available from LizardTech, a Celartem Technology Inc. Company. Available for Mac OS X and Windows platforms.

OpenEV: A JPEG2000 (JP2) viewer application freely available through SourceForge. OpenEV is open-source software and available for Windows 98/NT/2000/XP, Linux, Irix, and Solaris environments.

IrfanView, a graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista that is free of cost for non-commercial use.

GV (formerly GeoView) supports JPEG2000 sources files either from local disk or via a JPIP server. They support Solaris, Linux, Max OS X, Windows and OpenVMS. No-cost licenses are available to the US Government and its contractors. Others will have to request licenses from PAR Government Systems Corporation.

These viewers take advantage of JPEG2000 technology and offer fast browse/pan/zoom-in/zoom-out capabilities. These tools make it easy to rapidly roam through large HiRISE image products and save displayed portions of the image to other formats.

Photoshop JPEG2000 Plugin: 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 Jnord's plugin (http://www.fnordware.com/j2k) 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.

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.

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