National Imagery Transmission Format
Encyclopedia
The National Imagery Transmission Format Standard (NITFS) is a U.S. Department of Defense
(DoD) and Federal Intelligence Community
(IC) suite of standards for the exchange, storage, and transmission of digital-imagery products and image-related products.
DoD policy is that other image formats can be used internally within a single system; however, NITFS is the default format for interchange between systems. NITFS provides a package containing information about the image, the image itself, and optional overlay graphics. (i.e. a "package" containing an image(s), subimages, symbols, labels, and text as well as other information related to the image(s)) NITFS supports the dissemination of secondary digital imagery from overhead collection platforms.
Guidance on applying the suite of standards composing NITFS can be found in MIL-HDBK-1300A, National Imagery Transmission Format Standard (NITFS), 12 October 1994. The NITFS allows for Support Data Extensions (SDEs), which are a collection of data fields that provide space within the NITFS file structure for adding functionality. Documented and controlled separately from the NITFS suite of standards, SDEs extend NITF functionality with minimal impact on the underlying standard document. SDEs may be incorporated into an NITF file while maintaining backward compatibility because the identifier and byte count mechanisms allow applications developed prior to the addition of newly defined data to skip over extension fields they are not designed to interpret. These SDEs are described in the Compendium of Controlled Extensions (CE). This standard is mandated in the DoD for imagery product dissemination.
NITF has been implemented and fielded since the early 90's. Its content evolved over the years to embrace new technology in support of emerging operational requirements. NITF has adopted the ISO/IEC
15444-1 standard for imagery compression
, JPEG 2000
. Commercial
implementations of the standard are largely driven by marketability to the DoD and IC.
Companies with commercially available implementations/products include:
A follow-on update to the standard, Mil-Std-2500C, has been released. Following this update to 2500B, future documentation will be done using ISO/IEC documents and processes based on ISO/IEC 12087-5, Basic Image Interchange Format, in lieu of military standards.
The following documents define the standard:
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
(DoD) and Federal Intelligence Community
Intelligence community
Intelligence community may refer to* Bangladeshi intelligence community* Croatian intelligence community * Israeli intelligence community* Italian intelligence community, see SISMI...
(IC) suite of standards for the exchange, storage, and transmission of digital-imagery products and image-related products.
DoD policy is that other image formats can be used internally within a single system; however, NITFS is the default format for interchange between systems. NITFS provides a package containing information about the image, the image itself, and optional overlay graphics. (i.e. a "package" containing an image(s), subimages, symbols, labels, and text as well as other information related to the image(s)) NITFS supports the dissemination of secondary digital imagery from overhead collection platforms.
Guidance on applying the suite of standards composing NITFS can be found in MIL-HDBK-1300A, National Imagery Transmission Format Standard (NITFS), 12 October 1994. The NITFS allows for Support Data Extensions (SDEs), which are a collection of data fields that provide space within the NITFS file structure for adding functionality. Documented and controlled separately from the NITFS suite of standards, SDEs extend NITF functionality with minimal impact on the underlying standard document. SDEs may be incorporated into an NITF file while maintaining backward compatibility because the identifier and byte count mechanisms allow applications developed prior to the addition of newly defined data to skip over extension fields they are not designed to interpret. These SDEs are described in the Compendium of Controlled Extensions (CE). This standard is mandated in the DoD for imagery product dissemination.
NITF has been implemented and fielded since the early 90's. Its content evolved over the years to embrace new technology in support of emerging operational requirements. NITF has adopted the ISO/IEC
International Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
15444-1 standard for imagery compression
Image compression
The objective of image compression is to reduce irrelevance and redundancy of the image data in order to be able to store or transmit data in an efficient form.- Lossy and lossless compression :...
, JPEG 2000
JPEG 2000
JPEG 2000 is an image compression standard and coding system. It was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group committee in 2000 with the intention of superseding their original discrete cosine transform-based JPEG standard with a newly designed, wavelet-based method...
. Commercial
Commercial software
Commercial software, or less commonly, payware, is computer software that is produced for sale or that serves commercial purposes.Commercial software is most often proprietary software, but free software packages may also be commercial software....
implementations of the standard are largely driven by marketability to the DoD and IC.
Companies with commercially available implementations/products include:
- Avenza Systems - supports import of NITF format into Adobe SystemsAdobe SystemsAdobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
Photoshop as part of its Geographic Imager plugin suite - BAE SystemsBAE SystemsBAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...
- Ball AerospaceBall AerospaceBall Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is a manufacturer of spacecraft, components, and instruments for national defense, civil space and commercial space applications. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ball Corp...
- Commercial support for OpticksOpticks (software)Opticks is an open source, remote sensing application that supports imagery, video , Synthetic Aperture Radar , multi-spectral, hyper-spectral, and other types of remote sensing data. Opticks is unlike other remote sensing applications because it treats imagery and video alike...
. - BoeingBoeingThe Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
- DataMaster (Developed by and acquired along with AutometricAutometricAutometric Inc. was a company spun out of Paramount Pictures to work with early satellite imagery. The company created image analysis products for representing imagery on the earth, cataloging, and image augmentation. This company was purchase by Boeing Inc. at the end of 2000...
Inc. in 2000) - DAT/EM Systems International
- DigitalGlobeDigitalGlobeDigitalGlobe, of Longmont, Colorado, USA, is a commercial vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, and operator of civilian remote sensing spacecraft...
- Eastman KodakEastman KodakEastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....
- ESRIESRIEsri is a software development and services company providing Geographic Information System software and geodatabase management applications. The headquarters of Esri is in Redlands, California....
- ERDAS Inc. (ERDAS IMAGINEERDAS IMAGINEERDAS IMAGINE is a remote sensing application with raster graphics editor capabilities designed by ERDAS for geospatial applications. The latest version is 2010, version 10.1. ERDAS IMAGINE is aimed primarily at geospatial raster data processing and allows the user to prepare, display and enhance...
) - GeoEyeGeoEyeGeoEye Inc. is a commercial satellite imagery company based in Herndon, Virginia that is the world's largest space imaging corporation....
- General Dynamics C4 SystemsGeneral Dynamics C4 SystemsGeneral Dynamics C4 Systems is a business unit of General Dynamics. General Dynamics C4 Systems is a leading integrator of secure communication and information systems and technology.-History:...
- SelectFocusIMAGE http://www.gdc4s.com/selectfocus reads/writes/transmits NITF 2.1 images. - IntergraphIntergraphIntergraph Corporation is an American software development and services company. It provides enterprise engineering and geospatially powered software to businesses, governments, and organizations around the world. Intergraph operates through two divisions: Process, Power & Marine and Security,...
- Harris CorporationHarris CorporationHarris Corporation is a Florida-based international communications equipment company that produces wireless equipment, electronic systems, and both terrestrial and spaceborne antennas for use in the government, defense, and commercial sectors. It is also the largest private-sector employer in...
- ITTITT CorporationITT Corporation is a global diversified manufacturing company based in the United States. ITT participates in global markets including water and fluids management, defense and security, and motion and flow control...
- ENVI & IAS - L-3 Communications/Integrated Systems - Tactical Video Exploitation Suite (TVES) creates and views NITF 2.1 images.
- LEAD TechnologiesLEAD TechnologiesLEAD Technologies Inc. is a privately held software company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. LEAD develops, markets and supports a line of imaging toolkits called LEADTOOLS.- History :...
- LizardTechLizardTechLizardTech is a geospatial software company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, notable for transferring the wavelet-based MrSID image encoding and viewing technology from initial development by the U.S...
- Paragon Imaging
- PCI Geomatics
- PhotoTelesis
- Recon OpticalRecon OpticalRecon Optical was a privately held defense contractor founded in 1922 by Eugene W. Fuller as Chicago Aerial Survey Company; it was later known as Chicago Aerial Industries...
- Sensing Systems
- Overwatch - RemoteViewRemoteViewRemoteView, is the family name of a group of software programs designed to aid in remote sensing using satellite or aerial images of the Earth's surface. It is published by Overwatch Geospatial Systems , a subsidiary of Textron Inc...
(Acquired by Overwatch Geospatial Systems 2006 ) - Technology Service Corporation (TSC) TENET Technology Ltd - Reader
- Stellar Science - Photoshop File Format Plug-in
- Open Source Geospatial FoundationOpen Source Geospatial FoundationThe Open Source Geospatial Foundation , is a non-profit non-governmental organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. The foundation was formed in February 2006 to provide financial, organizational and legal support to...
- Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL)GDALGDAL is a library for reading and writing raster geospatial data formats, and is released under the permissive X/MIT style free software license by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. As a library, it presents a single abstract data model to the calling application for all supported formats... - QinetiQQinetiQQinetiq is a British global defence technology company, formed from the greater part of the former UK government agency, Defence Evaluation and Research Agency , when it was split up in June 2001...
- MotionDSPMotionDSPMotionDSP is a Silicon Valley startup which has developed multi-frame video enhancement software that improves the quality video using super-resolution techniques. Its patented technology is available in video forensic software called...
- MotionDSP Ikena ISR product supports opening sequences of NTIF images as a video stream.
A follow-on update to the standard, Mil-Std-2500C, has been released. Following this update to 2500B, future documentation will be done using ISO/IEC documents and processes based on ISO/IEC 12087-5, Basic Image Interchange Format, in lieu of military standards.
The following documents define the standard:
- MIL-STD-2500C(1) — National Imagery Transmission Format (Version 2.1) for the National Imagery Transmission Format Standard, 1 May 2006, Superseding MIL-STD-2500B/CN2
- MIL-STD-2500B(2) — National Imagery Transmission Format (Version 2.1) for the National Imagery Transmission Format Standard, 22 August 1997 with Notice 1, 2 October 1998, and Notice 2, 1 March 2001.
- NITF Extensions 2.1 — The Compendium of Controlled Extensions (CE) for the National Imagery Transmission Format (NITF), Version 2.1, 16 November 2000.
- MIL-STD-188-199(1)— Vector Quantization Decompression for the National Imagery Transmission Format Standard, 27 June 1994 with Notice 1, 27 June 1996.
Free Software
- NITRO is a full-fledged, extensible library solution for reading and writing NITF. It is written in cross-platform C, with bindings available for other languages (Java, Python, C++). Licensed as LGPLv3 and/or GPLv3.
- GDAL supports writing of uncompressed, jpeg compressed and jpeg2000 (with ECW SDK) compressed NITF 2.1 files, and reading NITF 1.1, NITF 2.0, NITF 2.1 and NSIF 1.0 files with uncompressed, jpeg compressed, jpeg2000 (with Kakadu or ECW SDKs) or VQ compressed images.
- Stellar Science NITF Image Library an open-source C++ library capable of reading NITF 2.0 and 2.1 image files.
- OpticksOpticks (software)Opticks is an open source, remote sensing application that supports imagery, video , Synthetic Aperture Radar , multi-spectral, hyper-spectral, and other types of remote sensing data. Opticks is unlike other remote sensing applications because it treats imagery and video alike...
supports reading and writing NITF versions 2.0 and 2.1. - OSSIM is a set of libraries and tools for geospatial image processing. NITF version 2.0 and 2.1 can be read and written using OSSIM.
- GeoGenesis LITE geospatial data viewer supports the import, viewing and export of NITF imagery.