Earlier this week LizardTech launched a new version of their GeoXpress 8 image compression software, along with a new MrSID compressed data format MG4 (for MrSID Generation 4). The new format supports the compression of hyperspectral data (up to 255 bands), alpha channels, and improved mosaicking.
This is the first new MrSID data format from LizardTech since 2002. The necessity for the new format came with greater adoption of LiDAR and the company’s ability to compress point cloud data (launched last year), the new Worldview2 satellite’s 8-band imagery that can now be compressed and manipulated with new hyperspectral compression and manipulation features in GeoExpress 8, as well as other advancements that give users greater control over their imagery.
Among the new features in GeoXpress 8 is the ability to create composite imagery mosaics, which treats the entire container of images as a single image. This greatly speeds image processing and access. The hyperspectral functionality allows you to decode just specific bands of imagery and pick and choose those bands that are right for your workflow. With the alpha channel functionality, there is an added fourth band that can be made transparent, which greatly aids mosaicking by eliminating artifacts on the edges.
The new MG4 format can be created now in the new GeoExpress8 product, viewed in the free GeoViewer now, and will be adopted quickly through partner imagery analysis software.
