DAT, SPOT

Manifold's DAT dataport imports raster data in legacy .dat format from SPOT (Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre) satellites operated by Airbus Defense and Space.    DAT legacy format typically does not automatically capture coordinate system information.   We must manually specify the coordinate system for each imported image using any metadata we can find. Modern SPOT imagery usually uses GeoTIFF format, which imports with coordinate systems automatically assigned.

 

 

To import from DAT format:

 

  1. Choose File-Import from the main menu.

  2. In the Import dialog browse to the folder containing data of interest.

  3. Double-click the file ending in .dat for the data of interest.

  4. A table and one or more images will be created and possibly a comments component as well.

 

 

The comment component above provides metadata text extracted from the DAT.  The example image shows the same scene in three different bands.   We can double-click one of the images to view it.  

 

 

DAT files will often contain multiple images showing the same scene as imaged in different frequencies. The images can sometimes require considerable tinkering to create an understandable display, for example, combining the multiple bands into a single image using techniques like those illustrated in the Example: Import BIL and Combine 3 Bands topic.

Notes

Projections - Take care to find any available commentaries or metadata information that may accompany the DAT files in use.   DAT files, especially older ones, may use idiosyncratic ways of specifying projections that are different from modern practise and which will result in imports that do not correctly specify projection information.  In that case, we will have to use whatever documentation we can find on the data set to learn what the correct projection should be so we can specify it using Assign Initial Coordinate System.

See Also

Assign Initial Coordinate System

 

Example: Import BIL and Combine 3 Bands