Image analysis software was previously reserved for geospatial professionals using high-performance workstations. I can't think of a project that we've done in the last five years that does not involve some type of imagery. For our clients to get the most from the data sets that have been put together, it's really important to have image handling capabilities beyond just displaying them as a backdrop to vector data. It unlocks things that were done in high-end research facilities and puts them on common people's desktops. A multispectral image enhanced using the ArcView Image Anaysis legend editor compared to the lower view that shows the same image as depicted using standard ArcView GIS display capabilities.
Images often exceed the screen resolution of most computer monitors and graphics cards.
ArcView Image Analysis avoids this performance degradation by preemptively creating pyramid layers when an ArcView Image Analysis theme is added to a view. These layers represent reduced views of the original data that has been resampled reduced in resolution by a power of two. The original data is not changed in the process. It may be worthwhile to purchase this extension just for the drawing speed enhancement. Putting Image Data to Work Land cover classification and change detection analysis are important techniques for industries, such as timber or agriculture, that work with large geographic areas.