FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) Reader/Writer
FME Format Type Identifier |
FITS |
Reader/Writer |
Both |
Typical File Extensions |
.fits, .fit, .fts |
The FITS Reader/Writer allows FME to read and write data in the Flexible Image Transport System format version 4.0, an open standard used primarily in astronomy.
FITS Product and System Requirements
Format |
Product |
Operating System |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Reader/Writer |
FME Desktop License |
FME Server |
FME Cloud |
Windows 64-bit |
Linux |
Mac |
Reader |
Available in all FME editions |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Writer |
Available in all FME editions |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
- More about FME Licenses and Subscriptions.
- More about FME Desktop Editions and Licenses.
FITS can contain any number of multispectral raster images, non-spatial ASCII tables, and non-spatial binary tables. Each of these is its own HDU (Header and Data Unit), so each can have its own set of metadata attributes.
FITS images can be georeferenced, but we currently only support georeferencing for images which use latitude and longitude and have this planetary extension, and not celestial referencing. Even so, this often will result in custom coordinate systems in FME, constructed from the coordinate system parameters, rather than existing named coordinate systems. Regardless of mapping to a custom FME coordinate system or not, the original celestial or WCS source reference system information is preserved by the reader in the form of format attributes.
The FITS writer supports update and delete operations on rows in the ASCII or binary tables using the implied row number specified by an input attribute. By default the FITS reader will produce a fits_id attribute that indicates the internal file row number that a feature was read from.
Terminology in this Section
Definition or FME Representation |
FITS Equivalent Definition |
---|---|
dataset |
FITS file |
feature |
|
feature type |
|
Reader Overview
FME considers a single FITS file to be a dataset.
Writer Overview
The writer will store images into individual HDUs, and each non-spatial feature type will be represented by a table, all in one FITS file.
The writer has the following capabilities:
- Raster Creation
- Table Creation
- Table Update
FME Raster Features
FME raster features represent raster data and use several concepts that are unlike those used in the handling of vector data. The topics below describe how FME processes raster data.
FITS supports rasters with any number of bands.