Meta Raster Format

File Format
Name	Meta Raster Format
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Geospatial Meta Raster Format
Extension(s)	.mrf, .ppg, .pjg, .idx
Released	≤2014 (draft), 2016 (v1.0)

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