Adding Landsats to Mosaic Dataset

[StephenChignell]

Hi guys, I'm very new to Mosaic Datasets, and am trying to figure out the best way to add a collection of Landsats to one.  The Landsats are all composited/stacked/pan-sharpened, converted to a raster dataset, and clipped to my AOI (just to be clear, I have many images (MSS, TM, AND ETM+) covering the exact same area so I can see changes over the last 40 years).

My end goal is to have these all grouped together so that I can look through each of them, change the band combinations, and run processes like NDVI on them.  Am I right in thinking the Mosaic Dataset will allow me to do this?

Also, I know that there are "Raster Type" options for both Landsat TM and ETM+, but what about the older MSS data? What raster type do I use for that?

If you have any suggestions or ways to point me in the right direction (or know a good tutorial online for this kind of thing), it would help me out a great deal. 

Thanks!
Steve

[MelanieHarlow]

It sounds like all your Landsat imagery has been processed. You say "composited/stacked/pan-sharpened, converted to a raster dataset, and clipped". So you don't want to use the Landsat raster type. You want to use the Raster Dataset raster type.
If your data was still in its original format, then you'd use the Landsat raster type.
You could follow this, if you had the originals:
Adding a satellite sensor raster type to a mosaic dataset
But instead, you will follow:
Creating a mosaic dataset

At 10.0 Landsat 5 and 7 are supported. At 10.1, there are additional satellites, including support for MSS.
Supported raster types

[StephenChignell]

Thanks for the tip!  I have successfully created the mosaic dataset by following the instructions online, but I still have some problems/questions:

1. Is there a way to simply flip through, or look at individual rasters that I've added?  Right now all I can see is one image.

2. Which mosaicing method should I use if I want the images arranged from most recent to oldest?  I was thinking "by attribute," and creating a field with each raster's date.  How would I even do that?

3. How do I run functions like NDVI, etc. on my mosaic dataset? 

4. Are the "Footprint" and "Boundary" layers required if I already have the rasters clipped to the extent that I want?  Can I simply remove them from the mosaic dataset?

[MelanieHarlow]

#1. You can open the attribute table and click on the row in the Raster column. A little gray arrow will appear. Click it to show a preview for each.
Alternatively, you can make a selection and add each to the display:
Viewing one or more rasters within the mosiac datset

#2: Yes, by attribute. Open Attribute table. Add new field and populate it with a date. Then open the mosaic dataset properties and change the mosaic method to By Attribute and choose a base date, and the field to use and ascending or descending.
See the multiple orthophoto collection example.

#3: Right-click the mosaic dataset in the Catalog window and click Properties. Click the Functions tab. Right-click in the function chain and insert the NDVI function.
Alternatively, in the Image Analysis window, click the options button and click the NDVI tab and set the correct options. Then click the layer in the window and click the NDVI button in the Processing section.
See Editing function chains.

#4: Footprints and boundaries are fundamental to the structure of the mosaic dataset. If you were to remove them somehow, you would corrupt the dataset. If you don't want to display them, click Customize > ArcMap Options. Click the Raster tab. Click Mosaic Dataset. Uncheck the option to display the footprint and boundary.

[StephenChignell]

Thanks for the help!  Your links were very useful.

HOWEVER, the time slider will not work with my mosaic datasets.  A couple of other people  have had the same problem in this thread, but no one seems to have any answers:

http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/21330-Time-enabled-rasters-not-showing-with-time-slider


Any ideas?