Edit ENVI Headers

Use the Edit ENVI Header dialog to edit the values of ENVI header fields and to save the results to an ENVI header file (.hdr) in the same directory as the input image. The directory must have write permissions. Only standard ENVI header fields are displayed. Metadata fields that are specific to certain sensors and data formats are not listed.

You can also write a script to edit raster metadata using the EditRasterMetadata task or the ENVIRasterMetadata::UpdateItem method.

1. Choose an option to open the Edit ENVI Header dialog:
   • In the View Metadata dialog, click the Edit Metadata button.
   • From the Toolbox, select Raster Management > Edit ENVI Header. Select an input raster and click OK. You can open any raster format or sensor type that ENVI supports.
2. Set the values of the ENVI header fields as needed.

Here are some tips for using the Edit ENVI Header dialog:

• Click the Add button to select other metadata fields to include in the resulting header file.
• Click the Remove button to select metadata fields to remove from the resulting header file. Only optional metadata fields can be removed; required metadata cannot be removed.
• Click the Import button to select another open raster from which to import selected metadata.

The following fields are required:

• Columns: The number of columns in the image
• Rows: The number of rows in the image
• Bands: The number of bands in the image
• Interleave: The data interleave (BSQ, BIL, or BIP)
• Byte Order: The order of the bytes in integer, long integer, 64-bit integer, unsigned 64-bit integer, floating point, double precision, and complex data types. Select one of the following:

  • Host (Intel): least significant byte first (LSF) data (DEC and MS-DOS systems).

  • Network (IEEE): most significant byte first (MSF) data (all other platforms).
• Data Type: The IDL data type of the image:
  • Byte: 8-bit unsigned integer
  • Integer: 16-bit signed integer
  • Long Integer: 32-bit signed integer
  • Float: 32-bit single-precision
  • Double: 64-bit double-precision floating-point
  • Complex: Real-imaginary pair of single-precision floating-point
  • Double-precision Complex: Real-imaginary pair of double precision floating-point
  • Unsigned Integer (default): 16-bit
  • Unsigned Long Integer: 32-bit
  • 64-bit Long Integer
  • 64-bit Unsigned Long Integer
• File Type: The file format of the image
• Header Offset: The number of bytes of embedded header information present in the file. ENVI skips these bytes when reading the file.

See Optional ENVI Header Fields for descriptions of all other fields.

See Calibration Metadata for descriptions of metadata related to radiometric calibration.

For raster series files (.series), see Raster Series Metadata for descriptions of the Regular Bands and Regular Grid fields.

Use the NITF Metadata Editor to edit NITF metadata. Access this dialog by clicking the Edit NITF Metadata button in the Metadata Viewer dialog.

See Also

ENVI Header Files, Optional ENVI Header Fields, View File Metadata, Edit NITF Metadata, Supported Data Types, ENVIRasterMetadata (API), ENVIRaster::WriteMetadata (API), EditRasterMetadata Task