Meta Raster Format

Meta Raster Format (MRF) is an image and data storage format designed for fast access to imagery within a georeferenced tile pyramid at discrete resolutions. It was originally developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Format details
It is a composite format, with an image consisting of 3 components:


 * 1) MRF metadata file in XML format (file extension: .mrf)
 * 2) MRF data file. This can be a "Pile of PNGs" (file extension: .ppg) or a "Pile of JPEGS" (file extension: .pjg), in which case the data file contains blocks of concatenated images in PNG or JPEG format. Other possible formats include LERC.
 * 3) MRF index file (file extension: .idx)

Specification

 * Meta Raster Format Specification

Software

 * Meta Raster Format driver for GDAL

Links

 * MRF documentation and utilities
 * MRF User Guide
 * GDAL documentation: MRF
 * NASA, Esri speed delivery of cloud-based imagery data
 * MRF for large images
 * MRF as a Cloud Optimized Raster Format and LERC Compression