Implementation of an Equal-area Gridding Method for Global-scale Image Archiving

Constructing global-scale image databases is a challenging task because of large data volume and various map distortions. The raster pixel data structure on a projected flat surface has been used frequently; however, research shows that it may duplicate or lose original features. For a more accurate image-database construction method, this research investigated an equal-area global gridding method. An extended header structure was developed that allows facet indexing using geographic latitude and longitude. Three algorithms were developed in a C/C++ programming environment that performs new layer creation, accessing facet values, and importing image data in other projections. The output of this research can be considered for archiving global-scale satellite imagery and for publishing global-scale thematic raster datasets such as land cover and population density.