geotiff image displays stretched east -west

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08-17-2011 01:14 PM
NoelCantwell
New Contributor
New to Arc products,..just tinkering with ArcMap. cannot figure out why geotiff image displays stretched disproportionally in the x (east west). Just thought I'd put it out on this forum while I continue to play with this software. 
Thanks in advance.
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3 Replies
JamieDrisdelle
New Contributor III
Hi Noel,

It really depends which projection your imagery is in.  Different projections will distort your data in different ways.  you can check the projections of a raster by right clicking on it in the table of contents and opening it's properties.  Click on the source tab and scroll down to the spatial reference section. 

Here is some additional information on projections and how they affect your data:

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/About_map_projections/003r0000000q0000...

http://support.esri.com/en/knowledgebase/techarticles/detail/23025

I hope this helps.

Jamie
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NoelCantwell
New Contributor
thanks, I'll look into that,.... but i'm wondering why its not picking the correct projection info from the geotiff header
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EricRice
Esri Regular Contributor
Noel,

What is the projection listed in the layer properties?  Have you confirmed that the projection listed in the tiff header is different?  ArcGIS reads tiff header information.  The other thing to consider is the coordinate system of the map's dataframe.  If it is different, then ArcMap will project the data on-the-fly to whatever the dataframe is.  My guess is your data is either in a geographic coordinate system, or the dataframe is.  To check the dataframe, go to ArcMap > View > Dataframe Properties > Coordinate System tab. Perhaps some screen shots would be helpful to show the distortion in the X direction, and of the layer properties (coordinate system info).  It would also be helpful to know the location of the data - some projections distort more severely in certain geographic locations.

Best Regards,
Eric
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