Overview
The UP42 platform does not support the direct visualization of geospatial assets and job outputs. Download and render them in third-party GIS software.
Step 2. Open assets in QGIS
Step 3. Add basemaps
Step 1. Download and examine files
Download tasking or catalog assets, or job outputs.
The unpacked folders will contain different file formats depending on the source of the data. Find the file you will visualize by analyzing the folder structure:
DIMAP folder structure
This folder structure is used for Pléiades and SPOT collections. It consists of several folders with different prefixes:
_MS_
for analytic multispectral assets_P_
for analytic panchromatic assets_PMS_
for display assets
For visualization, use corresponding XML files with
DIM_
prefixes inside these folders instead of TIF or JPEG files, because they may be not georeferenced.Simple folder structure with GeoTIFFs
If the unpacked folder has a simple structure, use TIF files. GeoTIFF is the most common geospatial data file format, a single file that contains one or multiple color bands. Some TIF files are also cloud optimized (COG).
Step 2. Open assets in QGIS
- Download and install free open-source software QGIS.
- Drag and drop the required file (XML or TIF depending on the source) into a QGIS project.
For more information on how to use QGIS, see QGIS documentation.
Step 3. Add basemaps
Optionally, you can use different basemaps as location references for your image in QGIS.
- In the top navigation menu, click Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins.
- Search for QuickMapServices. Select it and click Install Plugin.
- In the top navigation menu, click Web → QuickMapServices → Settings.
- Go to More services and click Get contributed packages.
- Click
and select a basemap of your choice.
Pansharpen images
You can also use QGIS to pansharpen analytic data products from Pléiades and SPOT collections. There are different ways to do it, and one of the easiest is to use a pansharpening tool by GDAL.
- In QGIS, click Processing → Toolbox to open the toolbox sidebar.
- Import necessary assets:
- An analytic multispectral asset with the
_MS_
prefix - An analytic panchromatic asset with the
_P_
prefix
- An analytic multispectral asset with the
- In the toolbox search bar, search for GDAL → Pansharpening and select it.
- Choose the
_MS_
image as the Spectral dataset and the_P_
image as the Panchromatic dataset. - Click Run.
The pansharpened image will be displayed as a new layer in your QGIS project.
Video tutorials
How to download and visualize job outputs
Troubleshooting
My image appears colorless, bland, or half transparent
Sometimes QGIS interprets the near-infrared band as the alpha band. The optional alpha band in RGB images is used for giving transparency to specific parts of the image.
- In QGIS, right-click the image layer and click Properties.
- Go to Transparency.
- Under Custom transparency options, select None instead of an image band. Click Apply.
My image has a lot of white spots where there should be pixels
Sometimes in display image products, the nodata value is set to 0. At the same time, some very dark pixels are also set to 0. This causes this white spot effect.
- In QGIS, right-click the image layer and click Properties.
- Go to Transparency.
- Under No Data Value, clear the No data value checkbox. Click Apply.
My image is too dark or too bright
There isn't a default setting for images. Manually change different option values to achieve a satisfactory look.
- In QGIS, right-click the image layer and click Properties.
- Go to Symbology.
- Under Band rendering, go to Contrast enhancement and select Stretch to MinMax.
- Expand the Min/Max Value Settings drop-down pane.
- Try changing values for Cumulative count cut and Mean standard deviation. Click Apply after each iteration to see the result.
My Pléiades or SPOT images are rotated 90° counterclockwise
You rendered a JPEG file instead of an XML file with a DIM_
prefix. For more information about the DIMAP format, see Pléiades and SPOT 6/ 7 Format Delivery.