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Supported file formats in GEE

The following tables list the raster data (imagery and terrain) file formats and the vector file formats that are supported by Google Earth Enterprise Fusion (GEE).

Imagery data consists of satellite and overhead photographs. Terrain data provides topographical information about a geographic area.

Both imagery and terrain data are types of raster data, that is, characterized by a grid of cells covering an area of interest, where each pixel, the smallest unit of information in the grid, displays a unique attribute. All raster data must have geographic coordinates and projection information included in the file headers or contained in external text-based world files and projection files. All imagery data must be in 8-bit format with either one band for panchromatic or three bands for color. All terrain data can be in 16-bit or 32-bit format with a single band.

In Google Earth EC, the imagery data is draped over the terrain data, giving the imagery a topographical appearance.

Google Earth Enterprise Fusion imports common imagery and terrain data formats shown below, as a subset of the raster formats supported by GDAL.

Supported imagery and terrain data formats

File Format Notes
DTED
Erdas Imagine (IMG)
GeoTIFF
GIF Geographic coordinates and projection information must be accompanied by external world and projection files.
JPEG Geographic coordinates and projection information must be accompanied by external world and projection files.
JPEG2000
Microstation (DGN) Microstation DGN files from prior to version 8 are supported. Versions 8 and later are not supported.
MrSID
NITF
PNG Geographic coordinates and projection information must be accompanied by external world and projection files.
TAB
TIF Geographic coordinates and projection information must be accompanied by external world and projection files.
USGS ASCII DEM
USGS SDTS DEM

Importing large imagery files? Although Fusion does not allow you to import raw imagery source files larger than 80 GB, you can split large resource files into smaller ones using the gesplitkhvr tool. See the tutorial Segmenting Large Imagery Files.

Supported vector data formats

Vector data consists of geographic features which are either geographic coordinates (points), sequences of connected geographic coordinates (lines), or closed sequences of connected geographic coordinates (polygons). Each feature typically has attribute fields, such as name, street address, or a web site URL.

Google Earth Enterprise Fusion imports data in the common vector and point file formats, as a subset of the OGR vector formats.

File Format Notes
ESRI Shape File (.shp) For each ESRI shape file you import into Google Earth Enterprise Fusion, one DBF and one SHX configuration file, each with the same name as the original and the appropriate extension (.dbf and .shx) must be located in the same folder. In addition, if there is any projection in the image, a PRJ file with the same name as the original file and the appropriate extension (.prj) must be located in the same folder. Other associated files you can include with each SHP file are SBN, SBX, CPG, and LYR.
Generic ASCII Point data only in comma-separated values or tab-delimited text format.
KML/KMZ
MapInfo File (.tab)
US Census Tiger Line Files