Creating a Composite Band Raster Dataset
Included in this tutorial:
Reviewing the data used to demonstrate the Composite Bands tool, as an example
Accessing the Composite Bands tool and reviewing its parameters and options
Running the example and examining its results
Software version in examples: ArcGIS Pro 3.0.0
Tutorial Data: The data used to demonstrate is reviewed within the tutorial.
Credits: L. Meisterlin and Nikolas Michael (2022)
This tutorial demonstrates using the Composite Bands tool to create a composite, multiband raster dataset from separate single-band rasters.
Related tutorials:
When adding raster data to your map project, you may be prompted with a popup described in the Adding Rasters to a Map Project (pyramids & statistics) tutorial.
For more on multispectral visualization see Symbolizing Composite Rasters as Stretched RGB values.
Tutorial Data
This tutorial demonstrates with Landsat 8 data downloaded from the USGS EarthExplorer. The dataset is a scene acquired in early 2017, covering Houston, Texas. The dataset that will be used for this is:
US Geological Survey. “Scene LC80250392017080LGN00” [geoTIFF]. Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS, collection 1, level 1. 21 March 2017. Accessed 9 October 2022 from https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
This Landsat 8 data includes 11 .tif files, along with a quality assessment layer and a metadata layer. Of the .tif files (each representing a band), this tutorial demonstrates with the eight 30-meter resolution bands.
one example data band rendered in the map view, along with several Landsat 8 bands listed in the Catalog Pane
The Composite Bands Tool Parameters & Options
Find the Composite Bands tool by clicking through Toolboxes > Data Management Tools > Raster > Raster Processing > Composite Bands in the Geoprocessing pane. You can also search for “Composite Bands” in the Geoprocessing search bar.
Briefly, the input parameters of the tool (which are quite straightforward) are as follows:
the composite band pane with inputs
Input Rasters: Specify the input single-band rasters to compile into the composite. You can choose from the layers in your current map project from the drop-downs, select multiple layers in the current project at once with the “downward arrow” button next to the Input Rasters heading, or browse to layers stored elsewhere by clicking the yellow folder icon.
IMPORTANT: The order in which the rasters are listed in the Input Rasters parameter will correspond to their band numbers in the output composite dataset.
Output Raster: Specify the name and location of the output composite raster. If the output is not a geodatabase raster file, then you must specify the file type extension (.tif, .jpg, etc).
To execute the tool, click Run.
Examining the results
The resulting composite raster should be automatically added to your map project, with a default RGB symbology (assigning the first three bands in the R, G, and B channels respectively, applying stretched values to each).
Thus, in our example below: the coastal-aerosol band is rendered in the red channel, the blue band is rendered in the green channel, and the green band is rendered in the blue channel.
results of running the Composite Band tool with the example data
Again, notice that the order in which our input rasters were listed in the Composite Bands tool dialogue box corresponds to the band numbers (Band_1, Band_2, etc.) in the resulting dataset.