{"id":185411,"date":"2014-04-08T23:16:27","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T23:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=185411"},"modified":"2024-01-18T15:25:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T23:25:31","slug":"stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis","title":{"rendered":"Stacking layers of imagery in ArcGIS"},"author":5141,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[22931,22771,23051],"tags":[22821,23011],"industry":[],"product":[36991],"class_list":["post-185411","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-imagery","category-natural-resources","category-water","tag-oceans-and-maritime","tag-raster","product-arcgis-desktop"],"acf":{"short_description":"This blog is in response to a comment about how to create a layer stack in ArcGIS.","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p>This blog is in response to a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.esri.com\/esri\/arcgis\/2013\/07\/24\/band-combinations-for-landsat-8\/#comment-5912\">comment about how to create a layer stack in ArcGIS<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We try really hard at Esri to make imagery management as easy as possible. It\u2019s often an overlooked aspect of image analysis, but if you\u2019re waiting a long time for an image to load, or to put together a band composition, it takes the fun out of it.<\/p>\n<p>There are two ways that you can make a layer stack in ArcGIS. One is to use a raster product. From the Catalog pane, navigate to the folder where you have your imagery, and if you see this icon next to one of the items, you\u2019re in luck.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_36876\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.esri.com\/esri\/arcgis\/files\/2014\/04\/raster-product_catalog.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-36876\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.esri.com\/esri\/arcgis\/files\/2014\/04\/raster-product_catalog.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"392\" height=\"572\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A raster product in the Catalog window<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Here\u2019s what it looks like zoomed in. It\u2019s a satellite over a generic raster.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.esri.com\/esri\/arcgis\/files\/2014\/04\/raster-product.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-36877\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.esri.com\/esri\/arcgis\/files\/2014\/04\/raster-product.png\" alt=\"raster product zoomed in\" width=\"560\" height=\"48\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, we don\u2019t support raster products for every single sensor that\u2019s out there. If you want to know if the type of imagery you are working with is supported as a raster product,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/resources.arcgis.com\/en\/help\/main\/10.2\/index.html#\/\/009t0000000v000000\">check out this page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re imagery is not supported, what you can do to create a layer stack is select all of the bands in the image analysis window. Then click on the band composition button. You won\u2019t have all of the functionality that you get from a raster product (you won\u2019t have a pansharpened image already set up for you, for example) but this\u00a0will create the layer stack that you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.esri.com\/esri\/arcgis\/files\/2014\/04\/create-layer-stack.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-36878\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.esri.com\/esri\/arcgis\/files\/2014\/04\/create-layer-stack.png\" alt=\"how to create a layer stack\" width=\"396\" height=\"557\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n"}],"authors":[{"ID":5991,"user_firstname":"Jeff","user_lastname":"Liedtke","nickname":"Jeff Liedtke","user_nicename":"jliedtke","display_name":"Jeff Liedtke","user_email":"JLiedtke@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-02 00:17:51","user_description":"Jeff Liedtke is a PE and Documentation Lead for the Raster Team at Esri.  He has a background in remote sensing, photogrammetry and image processing. Applying remote sensing techniques to provide valuable information for operational decision support applications is his passion.","user_avatar":"<img data-del=\"avatar\" src='https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/08\/jeff1.jpg' class='avatar pp-user-avatar avatar-96 photo ' height='96' width='96'\/>"}],"related_articles":"","card_image":false,"wide_image":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Stacking layers of imagery in ArcGIS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stacking layers of imagery in ArcGIS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ArcGIS Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-18T23:25:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ESRI\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin Butler\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8691ab3666684108f926d34bbb97f082\"},\"headline\":\"Stacking layers of imagery in ArcGIS\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-08T23:16:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-18T23:25:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis\"},\"wordCount\":6,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"oceans and maritime\",\"raster\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Imagery &amp; Remote Sensing\",\"Natural Resources\",\"Water\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis\",\"name\":\"Stacking layers of imagery in ArcGIS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-08T23:16:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-18T23:25:31+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Stacking layers of imagery in ArcGIS\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/\",\"name\":\"ArcGIS Blog\",\"description\":\"Get insider info from Esri product teams\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Esri\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Esri.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Esri.png\",\"width\":400,\"height\":400,\"caption\":\"Esri\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/ESRI\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/5311\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8691ab3666684108f926d34bbb97f082\",\"name\":\"Kevin Butler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/871537530afdee476917a9da0f9e9ac26665a4226ea71bee234efba5d2441ab2?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/871537530afdee476917a9da0f9e9ac26665a4226ea71bee234efba5d2441ab2?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin Butler\"},\"description\":\"Kevin Butler is a Product Engineer on Esri\u2019s Analysis and Geoprocessing Team working as a liaison to the science community. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from Kent State University. Over the past decade he has worked on strategic projects, partnering with customers and other members of the science community to assist in the development of large ecological information products such as the ecological land units, ecological marine units and ecological coastal units. His research interests include a thematic focus on spatial statistical analytical workflows, a methodological focus on spatial clustering techniques and a geographic focus on Puerto Rico and midwestern cities.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/author\/kevi6890\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Stacking layers of imagery in ArcGIS","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Stacking layers of imagery in ArcGIS","og_url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis","og_site_name":"ArcGIS Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/","article_modified_time":"2024-01-18T23:25:31+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@ESRI","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis"},"author":{"name":"Kevin Butler","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8691ab3666684108f926d34bbb97f082"},"headline":"Stacking layers of imagery in ArcGIS","datePublished":"2014-04-08T23:16:27+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-18T23:25:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis"},"wordCount":6,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["oceans and maritime","raster"],"articleSection":["Imagery &amp; Remote Sensing","Natural Resources","Water"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis","name":"Stacking layers of imagery in ArcGIS","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-04-08T23:16:27+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-18T23:25:31+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/imagery\/stacking-layers-of-imagery-in-arcgis#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Stacking layers of imagery in ArcGIS"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/","name":"ArcGIS Blog","description":"Get insider info from Esri product teams","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization","name":"Esri","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Esri.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Esri.png","width":400,"height":400,"caption":"Esri"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/","https:\/\/x.com\/ESRI","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/5311\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8691ab3666684108f926d34bbb97f082","name":"Kevin Butler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/871537530afdee476917a9da0f9e9ac26665a4226ea71bee234efba5d2441ab2?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/871537530afdee476917a9da0f9e9ac26665a4226ea71bee234efba5d2441ab2?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Kevin Butler"},"description":"Kevin Butler is a Product Engineer on Esri\u2019s Analysis and Geoprocessing Team working as a liaison to the science community. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from Kent State University. Over the past decade he has worked on strategic projects, partnering with customers and other members of the science community to assist in the development of large ecological information products such as the ecological land units, ecological marine units and ecological coastal units. His research interests include a thematic focus on spatial statistical analytical workflows, a methodological focus on spatial clustering techniques and a geographic focus on Puerto Rico and midwestern cities.","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/author\/kevi6890"}]}},"text_date":"April 8, 2014","author_name":"Jeff Liedtke","author_page":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/author\/jliedtke","custom_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Newsroom-Keyart-Wide-1920-x-1080.jpg","primary_product":"ArcMap","tag_data":[{"term_id":22821,"name":"oceans and maritime","slug":"oceans-and-maritime","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":22821,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":102,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":23011,"name":"raster","slug":"raster","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":23011,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":147,"filter":"raw"}],"category_data":[{"term_id":22931,"name":"Imagery &amp; Remote Sensing","slug":"imagery","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":22931,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":765,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":22771,"name":"Natural Resources","slug":"natural-resources","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":22771,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":263,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":23051,"name":"Water","slug":"water","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":23051,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":462,"filter":"raw"}],"product_data":[{"term_id":36991,"name":"ArcMap","slug":"arcgis-desktop","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":36991,"taxonomy":"product","description":"","parent":36981,"count":325,"filter":"raw"}],"primary_product_link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?s=#&products=arcgis-desktop","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/185411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/185411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185411"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=185411"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=185411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}