Open Source Linux GIS Software

The Orfeo Toolbox is a C++ library for high resolution remote sensing image processing. It is developped by CNES in the frame of the ORFEO program. More information is available at www.orfeo-toolbox.org It is based on the medical image processing library ITK and offers particular functionalities for remote sensing image processing in general and for high spatial resolution images in particular. Targeted algorithms for high resolution optical images (SPOT, Quickbird, Worldview, Landsat, Ikonos), hyperspectral sensors (Hyperion) or SAR (TerraSarX, ERS, Palsar) are available. Orfeo ToolBox has three main access depending on the category of user: write processing chains in C++ using existing filters or creating new ones, use the OTB applications, which is a plugin-based framework allowing to extend high-level processing chains from various environment ( command-line, QT, QGis, Python....) or use Monteverdi, a software for everyday life image manipulation and analysis.

EPSILON is a powerful Open Source wavelet image compressor. The project is aimed on parallel and robust image processing.

RAT is a software for advanced image processing of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) remote sensing data.

Volumetric is a 3-D image processing tool. It reads point cloud data, expands it to a volumetric space with highly effective memory usage, and filter out necessary points.

GeoSciPy is a set of C and Python functions that provide an API for all aspects of Geoscience and Remote Sensing Applications. Functions include reading/writing of many data formats, images, vectors, ..., and processing of images, vectors, ... including map projections, ... The library is written C, using HDF5 as the file format for storage of all remotely-sensed data and ancillary data, as well as processed data. The C functions assume a particular format for the HDF5 file contents, and provide functions for reading and writing data to such files. There is also a Python API that provides a procedural as well as an object-oriented interface to these functions. A Python GUI for interacting with such datasets is also part of the project. While there are other open-source GIS, and image-processing packages available, this one is designed to be comprehensive, work on 3 major platforms, user-extensible, fast, and able to handle huge datasets. Click the Blog tab for more info.