"What we have released is an archive of the HiRISE Experiment Data Records (EDRs) and Reduced Data Records (RDRs). EDRs are in the *.IMG file format and represent individual CCD channels (remember, there are 14 CCDs in the HiRISE camera and two channels per CCD, for a total of 28 channels). These EDRs are cleaned up, calibrated, stitched together, and mapped to Mars’ geometry, resulting in the RDR products. RDRs are in the *.JP2 and *.LBL formats. JPEG2000 is the technology that enables us to offer our gigantic images to the scientific community and the public in a timely and efficient manner. An observation’s image data are in the *.JP2 file and its meta data are in the detached *.LBL files. To view these products, JPEG2000 compatible software is required (see our site for a list of offerings)."

"GeoJasper is the FREE Geo supporting command line transcoder between JPEG2000 and other formats. i.e. Converts image data from one format to another correctly transferring Geo information between GeoTiff and GeoJp2™ (GeoJpeg2000). It supports striped as well as tiled TIFF images and TIFF images geo-referenced through World Files (TFW). Moreover it may combine three 1 band TIFFs into one RGB image. There are batch files supplied within the distribution to simplify command line execution.

"This software is FREE and Open Source... It's based on JasPer library and follows it's respective licence, which is totally free now! GeoJP2™ is a trademark of Mapping Science, Inc. The GeoJP2™ format is the intellectual property of Mapping Science, Inc."

There is also more information on GeoJP2 on the website.

"ER Mapper has released the source code to its ECW JPEG 2000 Software Development Kit (SDK). The ECW JPEG 2000 SDK allows software developers to add support for large geospatial images in ECW and JPEG 2000 format to their applications. ER Mapper’s ECW image format is the industry standard for large (multi-terabyte) geospatial images." Plus commentary from Directions Magazine.

For many years, libraries and archives have used the JPEG and TIFF coding standards to store and make available images in an electronic format. Decades of research in image compression techniques as a subfield of signal processing have yielded advancements through the use of wavelet transformation (as opposed to JPEG which uses discrete cosine transformation and various competing standards for TIFF compression), and some have adopted products based on proprietary wavelet compression implementations such as SID. In the 1990s, under the auspices of the International Standards Organization and the standards section of the International Telecommunication Union, the Joint Photographic Experts Group worked to create a new imaging standard using wavelet compression. The work of the committee reached a pinnacle in December 2000 with the ratification of Part 1 of the JPEG 2000 standard.

The symposium organizers view JPEG 2000 as both an evolutionary progression of formats and a revolutionary step in the advancement of best practices that will sustain the library and archive communities for a long period of time. On November 4-5, 2004, the invited speakers and delegates considered the adoption of the JPEG 2000 standard by libraries and archives. The symposium was arranged in an arc to take delegates from little assumed knowledge of the JPEG 2000 standard, through an awareness of how it can be used, to a point where a discussion could occur on stewarding the critical aspects of the standard. The result was a dialog that started the process of the adoption of this important standard into best practices, products, and services that meet the unique needs of the library and archive communities.