Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) will support the FGDC's SDTS Raster and Point Profiles in ARC/INFO version 8.0

ESRI is demonstrating its commitment to the SDTS format by supporting two new profiles in ARC/INFO version 8.0. The Part 5 Raster Profile and Extensions (SRPE) and the Part 6 Point Profile support will allow encoding and decoding from ARC/INFO's grid and coverage data models. Currently, ARC/INFO supports the Part 4 Topological Vector Profile. With the addition of these two new profiles, ARC/INFO will provide maximum support for the SDTS format. Please refer to ESRI's Home Page www.esri.com for product and ordering information.

The addition of support for SDTS Part 5 will allow ARC/INFO users to easily ingest raster data such as USGS Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) in SDTS format. DEMs in SDTS format are currently available for free downloading from the USGS.

Support for SDTS Part 6 will allow users to easily import point data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) into ARC/INFO coverages. NOAA's National Geodetic Survey (NGS) Geodetic Control Data are now available in SDTS Point Profile format. Requested data may be retrieved on-the-fly directly from a continuously-updated data base at the NGS.

The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) is developing a generic Point Profile encoder for other NOAA data. Watch for the availability of other NOAA point data in SDTS Point Profile format.