Geographic Information System
Concept of NoData in Raster
Dr. Arun K. Saraf,
Professor
Department of Earth Sciences
1
https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/manage-data/raster-and-images/nodata-in-raster-datasets.htm
Concept of NoData in Raster
• Every cell location in a raster has a value assigned to it.
• A cell is assigned the NoData value if there is either no
information or insufficient information about the
characteristics of the location it represents.
• Note that NoData and 0 are not the same, because 0 is a
valid value.
https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/manage-data/raster-and-images/nodata-in-raster-datasets.htm
Concept of NoData in Raster
• Cell values can be either positive or negative, integer, or
floating point.
• Cells can also have a NoData value to represent the
absence of data.
• Sometimes there are homogeneous areas / outside of a
boundary in a raster dataset that the you do not want to
display.
4
https://sites.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/gis-520-portfolio-yujia-zhai/7-spatial-analysis-with-raster-data/1-basics-of-raster-data
No Data
https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/218504/filling-in-null-data-gaps-in-raster-image
https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/manage-data/raster-and-images/nodata-in-raster-datasets.htm
Concept of NoData in Raster
• These can include borders, backgrounds, or other data
considered to not have valid values.
• Sometimes these are expressed as NoData values,
although other times they may have real values.
• When displaying rasters with NoData values, all renderers
allow you to set the NoData value to a color or no color;
however, the Stretched renderer allows you to identify a
specific background value and display color or no color.
Concept of NoData in Raster
NoData as black NoData without
colour any colour
The image on the left shows a NoData area with a black background, and the image on the right
shows that same area using no color.
https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/manage-data/raster-and-images/nodata-in-raster-datasets.htm
NoData examples in ArcGIS
• For example, NoData is stored natively inside
the Esri Grid format.
• However, this concept of pixels with value-based NoData
is foreign to most other raster formats.
• Because ArcGIS treats nongrid raster formats the same
as grids, NoData is allowed in any supported raster
format.
https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/manage-data/raster-and-images/nodata-in-raster-datasets.htm
NoData examples in ArcGIS
• Changing a raster's geographic location often involves
rotation, and when a raster is rotated, wedge-shaped
areas are created.
• The wedges are not filled with data and are unknown, so
these areas become NoData.
• With nongrid formats, the areas of NoData are stored in
the auxiliary file (.aux) next to the raster itself.
• Generally, the default values of NoData are displayed as
transparent.
10
11
https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/manage-data/raster-and-images/nodata-in-raster-datasets.htm
NoData examples in ArcGIS
• When calculating the statistics for a raster dataset, one can
choose to ignore any cells with NoData.
• When performing operations on raster data containing
NoData values, there are typically three ways that NoData
is treated for each cell:
NoData can be returned for the location no matter what
NoData is ignored, and a value is computed using any
available values
A value must be estimated, and NoData cannot be
returned.
https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/manage-data/raster-and-images/nodata-in-raster-datasets.htm
NoData Storing: examples in ArcGIS
• NoData is stored as a mask that is part of the raster
dataset, or using a pixel value in the dataset that is not
used as a valid value elsewhere in the dataset.
• For example, -9999 is a common value for storing NoData.
THANKS
14
