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ENVI 5 Service Pack 3 Release Notes

Revised 02 May 2013

New Features

Sensors, Data Formats, and Metadata

  • ENVI reads and displays imagery from the following sensors:
    • Landsat-8
    • EO-1 ALI and Hyperion
    • NPP VIIRS
    • DubaiSat
    • Pleiades Level-1B
    • RapidEye Level-1B GeoTIFF files with metadata; ENVI used to only support Level-1B files in NITF format.
  • The Radiometric Calibration tool now calibrates Landsat-8 and EO-1 data.
  • When you open an NPP VIIRS file, you have options to calibrate the data to radiance, reflectance, brightness temperatures, or albedo (depending on the product type and available bands). You can also choose to georeference the raw imagery and correct for "bowtie" visual artifacts.
  • The Toolbox contains a new entry: Geometric Correction > Reproject GLT with Bowtie Correction. This tool currently only works with NPP VIIRS imagery and lets you georeference the raw imagery if it contains Latitude and Longitude bands. If the imagery also contains a Quality band, you can choose to remove bowtie visual artifacts from the imagery.
  • You can create a meta file, which is a text file that contains the names of image files and/or bands to treat as one virtual file. When you later select the meta file for input or processing using File > Open, ENVI retrieves the image data from the individual disk files and treats them as if they were part of the same input file for processing.
  • You can open remote datasets from the ENVI application programming interface (API) using the ENVI::OpenRaster method.
  • The following are new standard metadata fields in ENVI header files:
    • data gain values: Gain values for each band. Units are W/(m2 * µm * sr).
    • data offset values: Offset values for each band.
    • data reflectance gain values: An array of data reflectance gain values.
    • data reflectance offset values: An array of data reflectance offset values.
    • product type: For WorldView and QuickBird products, the valid values include Basic Product, Stereo Product, Standard Product, Orthorectified product, and Digital Elevation Model Product. For NPP VIIRS products, the valid values include EDR and SDR.
    • read procedures: Spatial and spectral read routines that define custom file readers.
    • reflectance scale factor: The value that, when divided into your data, would scale it from 0 to 1 reflectance. For example, if the value of 10,000 in your data represents a reflectance value of 1.0, enter a reflectance scale factor of 10,000.
    • security tag: A string with security information inherited from formats that typically contain security classification levels (such as NITF).
  • ENVI can read the PNG format on Macintosh and Linux operating systems. This includes legends that are displayed with some Web Mapping Service (WMS) datasets. ENVI previously read the PNG format on Windows operating systems only.
  • If ALOS PALSAR georeferenced datasets (GR, specifically levels 1.0, 1.5, and 4.1) include a .meta file, ENVI extracts the acquisition time and pseudo map information, if available.
  • Tie points in a GeoTIFF file are used to compute a modeltransform metadata tag, which is used to georeference the image to a pseudo (non-standard) projection in the ENVI display.
  • ENVI automatically georeferences GeoTIFF files that contain standard map projection metadata when it opens the files. If only rational polynomial coefficient (RPC) information exists, that will be used to georeference the data. If a GeoTIFF file only contains a modeltransform metadata tag but no RPC or standard map information,then ENVI writes pseudo map information to the file.
  • When ENVI reads GeoTIFF images with a rotation and standard map projection, it can save them to GeoTIFF format while retaining the rotation setting.
  • For TIFF and GeoTIFF image files, you can optionally use the Edit ENVI Header tool or a text editor to create an ENVI header file (.hdr) to override the default metadata fields. For example, you can change the default stretch type to better visualize the data or you can change the wavelength information if you know that it is wrong in the original TIFF/GeoTIFF file. Once you save the changes to a header file, ENVI will read the new metadata values when you re-open the image file.
  • A precedence now exists when different types of map information are available for a given image. If an image contains standard map information plus RPC or pseudo information, the standard map information will be used as the primary spatial reference and theRPC or pseudo information will be used as the auxiliary spatial reference. ENVI will write RPC information to the header file if you save the file to ENVI format. If the image contains RPC and pseudo map information, the RPC information will be used as the primary spatial reference.
  • If files contain RPC or pseudo map information, the status bar displays the latitude and longitude of the current location of the cursor in Degrees/Minutes/Seconds.
  • ENVI currently does not allow a geographic lookup table (GLT)-based image to be displayed along with an image georeferenced to a standard map projection.
  • The ENVIRasterSpatialRefGLT object was added to the ENVI API. This is a reference to a GLT spatial reference associated with an ENVIRaster.
  • If you display an image (which sets the base coordinate system of the display) before opening an Esri® Image Service through the Remote Connection Manager, the Image Service request will use the same coordinate system by default. You can change the default coordinate system of the Image Service, if needed.
  • When accessing mosaic datasets (via Esri® Image Services) through the Remote Connection Manager, you can choose from various methods for creating the mosaic.These are described in the online ArcGIS 10.1 Help.
  • A new NITF preference is available: Pass through NITF C8 ABPP. If set to True, ENVI will pass through the bits per pixel (ABPP) if you chip a NITF C8 image. Instead of creating new NITF C8 statistics (ABPP, NBPP, HISTOA:OBPP, and SOC::SIZ::Ssiz) from a chipped image, ENVI will pass them through from the original NITF file. The default setting is False.

Image Processing

  • The Image to Map Registration tool is available through the Toolbox.
  • In the Viewshed Analysis workflow, visible areas are colored green. Non-visible or undetermined areas are colored red.
  • The Mensuration Services Program (MSP) interface was upgraded to work with MSP version 1.2.

User Interface

  • A new set of North Arrow preferences allows you to customize the appearance and default location of north arrows in the display.
  • Arrow, polygon, and polyline annotations have a default line thickness of three pixels, which makes them more visible.
  • Filled polygon shapefiles display accurately when you zoom in or out at any map scale.
  • The visual quality of lines and polygons has improved.
  • Symbol, ellipse, and rectangle annotations are initially drawn orthogonally to the display axes, regardless of the orientation (rotation) of the underlying data layer. Text annotations are initially drawn horizontally with respect to the display.
  • Properties dialog for vectors: If a specific vector attribute has more than 256 unique values, the selected color table is equally divided among the number of attributes, creating a color gradient. In Service Pack 3, you can select the Cycle Color Table option if you want the color table to repeat itself with each iteration of 256 attributes. Also, a preview of the currently selected color table is displayed above the Color Table drop-down list.
  • Images initially display at their centers instead of the upper-left corners.
  • New Display General preferences are available to let you set unique default stretch types for specific data types:
    • Default Stretch for 8-bit Imagery
    • Default Stretch for 16-bit Uint Imagery
    • Default Stretch for All Other Imagery
  • If you chip the display to a PowerPoint presentation and the source image contains map information, the geographic coordinates of the center of the chipped view are added to the Notes field in the presentation.
  • If you un-dock the Layer Manager and/or Toolbox from the main application, you can re-attach them by using one of the following options:
    • Clicking the square icon in the floating dialog
    • Clicking the right-facing arrow (the same arrow used to hide and show panels) in the main application
    • Clicking the X button in the upper-right corner of the floating dialog
  • Files that you opened recently using File > Open or File > Open As are available under File> Open Recent for easier access in the current or future ENVI sessions.
  • To close all files, select File > Close All from the menu bar. ENVI removes the files from the Data Manager and Layer Manager.
  • Windows users can drag and drop files from ArcMap™, ArcCatalog™, or the Windows File Manager into multiple views. You can also drag and drop files from the Data Manager to any view.
  • If you have multiple views displayed, you can drag-and-drop raster, vector, or annotation layers from the Layer Manager to any one of those views in the display or to the corresponding view icons in the Layer Manager. This creates a copy of the layer(s) to populate the views.
  • The Data Manager has a Load Grayscale button to let you quickly display a single band of image data.
  • Your ENVI or ENVI EX license/install number is displayed when you select Help> About from the menu bar. You will need this license/install number when contacting Technical Support.

Known Issues

ID Description
Windows 7 requires Internet Explorer 9 to display ENVI Help
On 64-bit installations running Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 or older, the Help browser opens but does not show content. Workaround: Install Internet Explorer 9.
ENVI-54292 ENVI and ENVI Classic Help fail to launch from screen-level help links on Windows Vista
When clicking on a Help button in ENVI on Windows Vista systems with Internet Explorer, Help fails to launch. Workaround: From Internet Explorer, click the Alt key to display the toolbar, select Tools > Internet Options > Security tab, disable the checkbox Enable Protected Mode, and restart Internet Explorer.
CLASSIC-60965 ENVI Classic cannot read or write Esri GRID files with ArcGIS 10
Workaround: Start ENVI (not ENVI Classic) and open Esri GRID files with the menu option File > Open As > IP Software > ESRI GRID. ENVI cannot write files to GRID format.
ENVI-65466 ENVI cannot load images from the Layer Manager when SELinux is enabled
When installing CentOS 5, the default SELinux setting is "Enforcing." With this setting, the following error appears when you attempt to open an image:

Failed to open image. This may be due to SELinux settings. Please see the Release Notes for ENVI, or contact your System Administrator.

Workaround: Change the SELinux setting to "Permissive" or "Disabled" by setting SELINUX=permissive or SELINUX=disabled in /etc/sysconfig/selinux and rebooting.
ENVI-65885 ENVI 5.0 cannot produce the same saturation stretch results as 4.8
In previous versions, a saturation stretch could be created on an image based on the displayed results. In ENVI 5.0, performing a saturation stretch from the display does not produce the same saturation stretch image as before. Workaround: Open and display the image, apply a 2% stretch, and save the result to a new file. Apply the saturation stretch to this new image. Note: This also affects the RGB to HSV type transforms and HSV image sharpening.
ENVI-68682 ENVI exits unexpectedly when opening a hyperspectral EO-1 Hyperion file on 32-bit Windows
Workaround: If a 64-bit platform is available, open the file using the 64-bit version of ENVI. If you are on a 32-bit platform, open the EO-1 Hyperion file in ENVI, then save the file to ENVI raster format. Close ENVI, re-start it, and open the ENVI version of the file.
ENVI-68814 Segmentation faults occur when saving files in ENVI on Linux Red Hat 6 platforms
This problem occurs with CPUs that support Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX). To find out if your CPU supports AVX, issue the following command:

cat /proc/cupinfo

Look for an avx string in the flags field of the output.

Workaround: Update your glibc libraries to Red Hat version 6.3 or 6.4, or install the patch described at http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2013-0279.html. For more information about the issue, see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=752122.

Problems Fixed

ID Description
ENVI-62895 ENVI did not read GeoTIFF modeltransform tags. This is now supported.
ENVI-65963 The Edit ENVI Header dialog did not appear when opening an image without a header.
ENVI-66889 Users could not locate their license number in the ENVI 5 interface.
ENVI-66986 Skew and rotation were not honored with some TIFF files.
ENVI-67596 Toobox entries were not always added for IDL .pro/.sav files put in the "extensions" folder.
ENVI-67836 SVM Classification failed with pyramids.
ENVI-67921 MrSID files opened in ENVI Classic but not in ENVI 5.
ENVI-67964 The RPC Orthorectification workflow failed with a JPEG2000 DEM for input.
ENVI-68041 ENVI_FX_SEGMENTONLY_DOIT did not honor the Intensity segmentation algorithm.
ENVI-68247 Help instructions for FFT filtering needed clarification.
ENVI-68278 Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification failed in ENVI Classic and Example-Based Feature Extraction (ENVI) on 64-bit Mac OS X 10.8 systems.
ENVI-68347 ENVI did not start if the custom code directory contained XML files.
ENVI-68361 ENVI exited unexpectedly when loading a classification image with an incorrect 'class lookup' header value.
ENVI-68431 "Product Type" metadata values were inconsistent in DigitalGlobe products.
ENVI-68471 ENVI could not display data values in HDF file from STAR-Global Vegetation Health Products.
ENVI-68484 ENVI could not georeference ALOS PALSAR 1.5 georeferenced dataset.
 ENVI-68735 The Build Mask tool did not let users select an input file from which to set the mask dimensions.
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