ENVI 5.

2 Release Notes
Revised 18 September 2014

Supported Platforms

New Features

Known Issues

Fixed Issues

Backward-Compatibility Notes

Please visit the Help Articles section of the Exelis website (www.exelisvis.com) for the most
up-to-date release notes.

Supported Platforms
Platform
Windows

Hardware

Supported Versions

Intel/AMD 32-bit XP SP2, Vista, 7, 8

Intel/AMD 64-bit XP, Vista, 7, 8

Macintosh Intel 64-bit

Linux

OSX 10.8, 10.9

Intel/AMD 64-bit Kernel 2.6.32, glibc 2.12

An X-Windows manager is required for Macintosh. The software products were tested using
XQuartz 2.7.4.
ENVI Classic is also supported on Solaris 10 SPARC 64-bit systems.
For optimal performance, your video card should have a minimum of 1 GB of RAM and
should support OpenGL 2.0 or later. Also be sure to install the latest drivers for your video
card. An HTML5-compatible browser is required to view the ENVI Help.

New Features
ENVI 5.2 includes the new and enhanced features listed below. See the following sections:

Sensors and Data Formats

Image Processing

Esri Integration

User Interface

Programming

Sensors and Data Formats

ENVI reads and displays imagery from the following sensors and data formats:

AlSat-2A

Deimos-1

Gaofen-1

GRIB-1 and GRIB-2

Multi-page TIFF

NetCDF-4

Proba-V S10 TOC products, including NDVI

Proba-V S1 TOA and TOC products

SkySat-1 Image Frames

WorldView-3

Ziyuan-1-02C and -3A

ENVI plays videos files, including those from Skybox Imaging. The Full Motion Video player
displays MISB metadata if the video file contains it. Export individual frames to the
ENVI display for further analysis, or convert a video file to a time-enabled raster series.
ENVI reads the following video formats in the Full Motion Video player:

Adobe Flash Video (.flv, .f4v)

Adobe Shockwave Flash (.swf)

Animated Graphics Interchange Format (.gif)

Apple Quicktime (.mov)

Audio Video Interleaved (.avi)

Google WebM Matroska (.webm)

Matroska Video (.mkv)

Motion JPEG (.mjpeg, .mjpg)

Motion JPEG2000 (.mj2)

MPEG-1 Part 2 (.mpeg, .mpg, .mp1, .m2v)

MPEG-2 Transport Stream (.ts)

MPEG-2 Part 2 (.mpeg, .mpg, .mp2, .mpg2, .mpeg2, .mpv, .m2v)

MPEG-4 Part 12 / 3GPP / 3GPP2 (.3gp, .3g2)

MPEG-4 Part 14 (.mp4, .mpg4, .mpeg4, .m4v, .h264)

Skybox (SkySat) video files

Image Processing
Spatiotemporal Analysis
You can build a series of images (also called a raster series) for spatiotemporal analysis,
which provides the ability to understand and predict Earth surface processes or human
activities over space and time. ENVI automatically reads raster "acquisition time" metadata
from a wide variety of sensor data sources. Use the following tools:

Build Raster Series: Create a series file that references the file locations of images
in your collection. You can order the raster series sequentially according to
acquisition time metadata.

Reproject Raster Series: Normalize a stack of rasters to a common spatial grid

with automatic resampling and reprojection.

Series/Animation Manager: View and animate a spatiotemporal series with time

slider and wheel controls. Also export a raster series to common video formats.

Write IDL scripts to perform all of these tasks; see the Programming section
below.

Learn how to build and animate a series of Landsat images in the Time Series
tutorial.

Spectral Indices
Use the Spectral Indices tool to compute various indices (one at a time), including
vegetation, geology, man-made features, burned areas, and water. It includes all of the
existing vegetation indices from the Vegetation Index Calculator.
The following are new vegetation indices:

Difference Vegetation Index

Global Environmental Monitoring Index

Green Atmospherically Resistant Index

Green Difference Vegetation Index

Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

Green Ratio Vegetation Index

Green Vegetation Index

Infrared Percentage Vegetation Index

Leaf Area Index

Modified Chlorophyll Absorption Ratio Index

Modified Chlorophyll Absorption Ratio Index - Improved

Modified Non-Linear Index

Modified Simple Ratio

Modified Triangular Vegetation Index

Modified Triangular Vegetation Index - Improved

Non-Linear Index

Normalized Difference Water Index

Normalized Multi-band Drought Index

Optimized Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index

Red Green Ratio Index

Renormalized Difference Vegetation Index

Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index

Simple Ratio

Transformed Chlorophyll Absorption Reflectance Index

Transformed Difference Vegetation Index

Triangular Vegetation Index

Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index

WorldView Improved Vegetative Index (WV-VI)

The following are new indices for other features:

Burn Area Index

Clay Minerals Ratio

Ferrous Minerals Ratio

Iron Oxide Ratio

Normalized Burn Ratio

Normalized Burn Ratio Thermal 1

Normalized Difference Built-Up Index

Normalized Difference Snow Index

WorldView Built-Up Index

WorldView New Iron Index

WorldView Non-Homogenous Feature Difference

WorldView Soil Index

Use the ENVIQuerySpectralIndices API routine to determine which indices can be computed
for a given image.
Write IDL scripts to compute spectral indices; see the Programming section below.
An EO-1 Hyperion Vegetation Indices tutorial shows how to pre-process Hyperion data and
use vegetation indices to examine areas of unhealthy vegetation in a forest.
A Burn Indices tutorial shows how to create and compare spectral indices of burned areas
from Landsat-8 imagery.
Other New Image Processing Features
The NNDiffuse Pan Sharpening tool uses the nearest neighbor diffusion (NNDiffuse) pan
sharpening algorithm to create a pan-sharpened raster from a low-resolution multispectral
raster and a high-resolution panchromatic raster.
A hyperspectral analysis tutorial explains how to use Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM)
classification and Spectral Feature Fitting (SFF) to compare image spectra to reference
spectra.
The Scatter Plot tool has been updated for the new ENVI interface. Select bands from
different rasters, create density slices, import/export ROIs, create a spectral profile,
calculate mean spectra and class statistics, export plots to common formats, etc. The
"dancing layers" functionality highlights pixels that correspond to the cursor location in the
Image window.
The Raster Color Slice tool performance has improved; the histogram plots have tick marks
and labels, the ability to zoom in/out, and a cursor crosshair that reports pixel values.
The Feature Counting tool has been redesigned:

Features are listed in a table view that provides colored text and the ability to sort
features.

Symbols, labels, and counts can be turned on and off in the display.

New symbols have been added.

Geolocation parameters are automatically determined for features derived from a

georeferenced image.

Features contain an optional Description field for capturing additional details.

A Grid option allows you to overlay grids on the top-most layer listed in the Layer
Manager.

Save features to an ENVI Feature Counting file (.efc) and restore this type of file
in a future ENVI session. You can also save features to shapefiles and
geodatabase files.

Restoring ENVI Classic ROI files (.roi) maintains their original geometry without converting
polygons to pixels.
The n-D Visualizer Export All function exports ROIs back to the ROI Tool.

Esri Integration
The Layer Manager and Data Manager have right-click Refresh options to reload saved
modifications to an Esri Layer file in a concurrent session of ArcMap software.
Create a new File Geodatabase in ENVI and write directly to it.
ENVI reads and writes to ArcGIS 10.2 Enterprise SDE Geodatabases via .sde connection
files.
ENVI's 32-bit application shortcuts for use with ArcGIS for Desktop software are located
under the ENVI 5.2 > ENVI for ArcGIS folder in the Windows Start menu.
The Remote Connection Manager has been enhanced as follows:

ENVI lists the same Enterprise SDE Geodatabase connections as ArcCatalog

software's "Database Connections."

ENVI displays the same user interface dialogs as ArcGIS for Desktop software, for
establishing Enterprise SDE Geodatabase connections.

For ArcGIS for Server connections, ENVI only lists the supported Image Services
data assets on the server.

A Mouse Wheel Zoom Direction preference controls the direction of the mouse wheel, so you
can match the direction that ArcMap software uses.
Send datasets to ArcMap software using the Data Manager, Layer Manager, and the File >
Chip View to ArcMap menu option.
Save data to a new geodatabase that is compatible with the currently installed version of
ArcGIS software.

User Interface
Export the contents of a display view to a Geospatial PDF file. Chip the view at display
resolution, or export all raster dataset layers in the view at full resolution.
Export the contents of a display view to Google Earth.

Animate through bands of an image by selecting Display > Band Animation. Or, right-click
on an image layer in the Layer Manager and select Band Animation.
A Preview option is available for NNDiffuse Pan Sharpening, Classification Aggregation, and
Spectral Indices that allows you to dynamically preview processing results for the area
displayed in the Image window before processing the full image.
The Layer Manager and the Toolbox panels can be widened by clicking and dragging on the
side of the panel.
The snail trail in the Overview window can be saved to a file.
Create placemarks of geographic locations to quickly find different places in the Image
window.
The vector and annotation buttons have been merged into two drop-down lists on the
toolbar.
The Preferences dialog has a new search field. Preferences are stored in JSON format, and
both 64-bit and 32-bit application modes share the same preferences.
The Undo and Redo buttons have been removed from the toolbar; these functions are still
available under the Edit menu and by using Ctrl-Z and Ctrl-Y keyboard shortcuts.
The Select HDF5 Datasets dialog was renamed to the Dataset Browser; use this dialog to
build raster files from NetCDF-4 and HDF5 datasets.
The Favorites section of the Toolbox has more options for managing favorite tools.
You can select a quick stretch type while defining a spatial subset.
You can right-click on an image in the Layer Manager and select Quick Stats to view image
statistics.
Highlight a vector record in the Attribute Viewer table, then click Go To in the menu bar to
center the image window over its location and to highlight the selected vector.
Use the File > Save As menu option to save images to ASCII, ArcView Raster, CADRG, CIB,
ER Mapper, ERDAS IMAGINE, JPEG2000, and PCI formats. These save options were
previously available through the Toolbox.

Programming
A new ENVI API Programming Guide in the ENVI Help explains how to write IDL scripts to
extend ENVI functionality.
Use these new routines to write scripts that perform image-processing tasks. You can also
publish these tasks to client applications using ENVI Services Engine.

Task

Description

ENVIAutoChangeThresholdClassificationTask Perform image change detection using

automatic thresholding.
ENVIBuildBandStackTask

Combine bands from different images into a

single image. Use a combination of this
routine and ENVIRegridRasterTask to create
a layer stack.

ENVIBuildRasterSeriesTask

Build a raster series file for spatiotemporal

analysis.

ENVIBuildTimeSeriesTask

Build a raster series file, ordered by

acquisition time, for spatiotemporal analysis.

ENVIChangeThresholdClassificationTask

Perform image change detection using

manual thresholding.

ENVIClassificationAggregationTask

Clean up classification results using an

aggregation operation.

ENVIClassificationSmoothingTask

Clean up classification results using a

smoothing operation.

ENVIClassificationToShapefileTask

Export one or more classes to a single

shapefile.

ENVIColorSliceClassificationTask

Create a classification raster by thresholding

select data ranges and colors.

ENVIDarkSubtractionCorrectionTask

Perform dark subtraction atmospheric

correction.

ENVIDimensionsResampleRasterTask

Resample an image to different spatial

dimensions.

ENVIForwardICATransformTask

Perform a forward independent component

analysis (ICA) transform.

ENVIForwardMNFTransformTask

Perform a forward minimum noise fraction

(MNF) transform.

ENVIForwardPCATransformTask

Perform a forward principal components

analysis (PCA) transform.

ENVIFXSegmentationTask

Perform a Feature Extraction segment-only

workflow.

ENVIGramSchmidtPanSharpeningTask

Perform Gram-Schmidt pan sharpening.

ENVIImageBandDifferenceTask

Perform a difference analysis on a specific

band in two images.

ENVIImageIntersectionTask

Compute the overlapping area of two

images.

ENVIImageThresholdToROITask

Define one or more ROIs using at least one

threshold.

ENVIISODATAClassificationTask

Perform unsupervised classification using

the ISODATA method.

ENVIMahalanobisDistanceClassificationTask

Perform Mahalanobis Distance supervised

classification.

ENVIMappingResampleRasterTask

Resample an image to different dimensions

using column and row mapping.

ENVIMaximumLikelihoodClassificationTask

Perform Maximum Likelihood supervised

classification.

ENVIMinimumDistanceClassificationTask

Perform Minimum Distance supervised

classification.

ENVINNDiffusePanSharpeningTask

Perform NNDiffuse pan sharpening.

ENVIPCPanSharpeningTask

Perform PC pan sharpening.

ENVIPercentThresholdClassificationTask

Segment an image into anomalous and nonanomalous regions.

ENVIPixelScaleResampleRasterTask

Resample an image to different dimensions

by multiplying the pixel size by a scale
factor.

ENVIQuerySpectralIndicesTask

Determine which spectral indices are

available for a given image.

ENVIRadiometricNormalizationTask

Create an image from two rasters that

minimizes their differences caused by
inconsistent image acquisition conditions.

ENVIRasterStatisticsTask

Calculate basic image statistics.

ENVIRasterViewshedTask

Calculate a viewshed from a DEM.

ENVIRegridRasterSeriesByIndexTask

Reproject a raster series to a spatial grid,

using the grid parameters of a selected
raster index.

ENVIRegridRasterSeriesByIntersectionTask

Reproject a raster series to a spatial grid,

using the geometric intersection of all of the
rasters.

ENVIRegridRasterSeriesByUnionTask

Reproject a raster series to a spatial grid,

using the geometric union of all of the
rasters.

ENVIRegridRasterTask

Reproject an image to a spatial grid.

ENVIROIToClassificationTask

Create a classification image from ROIs.

ENVIRXAnomalyDetectionTask

Perform Reed-Xiaoli (RX) anomaly detection.

ENVISpectralAngleMapperClassificationTask

Perform Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM)

supervised classification.

ENVISpectralIndexTask

Create a spectral index image from one predefined index.

ENVISpectralIndicesTask

Create a multi-band image, where each

band is a different spectral index.

ENVIThematicChangeTask

Input two classification images of the same

scene taken at different times and identify
differences between them.

ENVITrainingClassificationStatisticsTask

Compute statistics from classification

training regions.

ENVIVectorAttributeToROIsTask

Create ROIs from geometry records in a

vector.

ENVIVectorRecordsToROITask

Create one ROI from all geometry records in

a vector.

ENVIVegetationSuppressionTask

Remove the vegetation spectral signature

from multispectral and hyperspectral
imagery.

ENVIVideoToRasterSeriesTask

Export frames from a video file to a raster

series.

Use the ENVIGridDefinition routine to create a spatial grid definition, which is used to
georeference rasters and vectors to a common coordinate system. ENVIGridDefinition is
only a definition, not a spatial reference or raster. It can be used as an input to
ENVISpatialGridRaster or to define the grid parameters for an empty raster.
Use the ENVIMetaspectralRaster routine to create an image that consists of bands from
different images. Or, use this routine in combination with ENVISpatialGridRaster to create a
georeferenced layer stack.
Use the ENVINNDiffusePanSharpeningRaster routine to create nearest neighbor diffusion
(NNDiffuse) pan sharpened rasters from a low-resolution raster and a high-resolution
panchromatic raster.
Use the ENVIPreferences and ENVIPreferenceItem routines to manage preference settings.
Use the ENVIRasterSeries routine to build a series of images for spatiotemporal analysis.
Then use the ENVIRasterSeriesLayer routine to display the raster series.
Use the ENVIRasterStatistics routine to get statistics for all bands of an image.
Use the ENVIResampleRaster routine to resample images.
Use the ENVISpatialGridRaster routine to project an image to a standard spatial reference.
Use the ENVISpectralIndexRaster routine to create new rasters based on common spectral
indices.
The ENVIView routine has a new ChipToVideo method that saves an animation from
spatiotemporal analysis to a variety of video file formats.
The ENVIRaster::Subset method has been deprecated. Use ENVISubsetRaster for spatial
and spectral subsetting.

Known Issues
ID
ENVI70066

Description
Opening two GF-1 WFV images results in image artifacts

Opening two Gaofen-1 images in the same view results in gaps of data. Workaround:
Display multiple Gaofen-1 images in separate views.
ENVI70110

Georeferencing from GLT produces holes in a south polar

stereographic projection

When using Latitude/Longitude bands to create a geographic lookup table (GLT), images
geogreferenced using the GLT in a southern hemisphere polar stereographic projection
contain holes near their center.
ENVI70139

Vector layer is hidden temporarily on "Accept" while animating a

raster series

If you draw a polygon vector layer and accept it while a raster series is animating, the
polygon layer disappears. Workaround: Pause the animation between Accept operations,
or step through the series one frame at a time while editing the vector layer.
IDL-69220 Java bridge not configured properly when running 32-bit IDL from a
64-bit installation
The software installer builds a Java bridge configuration file specific to 32-bit or 64-bit
platforms. When running 32-bit IDL from a 64-bit installation, the Java configuration file
does not work and IDL issues an error message that it cannot initialize the Java bridge.
This affects the ENVI "Chip to Geospatial PDF" feature.
Installation error on Windows platforms: "Key not valid for use in
specified state"
Some customers have reported this error during the installation process. It is caused by a
Microsoft update (KB2918614), which affects the Windows installer service. Workaorund:
uninstall this Microsoft update. For more information, see the Microsoft
Community website.

Fixed Issues
ID

Description

ENVI-48044

ENVI could not animate a sequence of layers or bands.

ENVI-68875

Decision Tree did not update results.

ENVI-67602

AVNIR-2 data were not accurately georeferenced when using JAXA RPCs.

ENVI-69964

Toolbox and Layer Manager did not horizontally resize while docked.

ENVI-69923

Default bands changed in image display when the Edit Header tool was
open and closed.

ENVI-69872

Convolutions and Morphology dialog did not have a Queue button.

ENVI-69843

ENVI did not have spatial bookmarks.

ENVI-69689

FLAASH issued error message with large files: "POINT_LUN Negative

position argument not allowed."

ENVI-68930

ENVI should support the Esri 10.1 projection engine.

ENVI-68862

Slovenian geographic transformations were incorrect.

ENVI-70130

ACE calculation should be mean-centered and have an option to include the

sign component.

ENVI-70071

Documentation had incorrect PIXELSTATE keyword name for

ENVIRaster::GetData.

ENVI-70064

Updates to CLASS COLORS metadata did not take effect in Layer Manager.

ENVI-70051

ENVICoordSys documentation code examples were incorrect.

ENVI-70042

Multi-byte band names displayed incorrectly in the Layer Manager and Data
Manager.

ENVI-70038

New spectral libraries were not documented in the ENVI Help.

ENVI-70015

The Esri projection engine did not return an entry for

GCS_WGS_1984_Major_Auxiliary_Sphere.

ENVI-70002

RPC Orthorectification "Advanced Options" documentation needed better

clarification.

ENVI-69996

Setting an open-ended ROI threshold produced an incorrect pixel selection.

ENVI-69870

ENVI shifted DTED files by half a pixel.

ENVI-69857

Regridding was incorrect with data containing bad data, data-ignore values,
or NaN values.

ENVI-69847

ENVI did not open NITF files with a custom GEOSDE projection in the API.

ENVI-69733

Home and End keyboard keys produced the opposite effect for ENVI toolbar
sliders.

ENVI-69717

ENVI displayed artifacts along the border of SICD multi-segment images.

ENVI-69706

The Snail Trail did not properly reset after closing all layers in a view.

ENVI-69698

ENVI needs to support the new JGD2011 datum for Japan.

ENVI-69604

Shortcuts conflicted with pre-defined shortcut definitions for text

annotation.

ENVI-69562

The "Replace selected cells with value" option did not work correctly with
View/Edit Attributes.

ENVI-69504

ROI subsetting with ENVIRasters did not work when the ROI was projected
to a spatial reference.

ENVI-69462

Issuing a .RESET_SESSION command crashed IDL if ENVI was building

pyramids.

ENVI-69398

R/G/B check boxes in the Change Color Table dialog should be radio
buttons instead.

ENVI-69168

Calling ENVI::OpenRaster() on some external formats multiple times

resulted in an error message.

ENVI-66801

The Overview could not be selected when first switching to a view.

ENVI-66055

Users should be able to set preferences in the API.

CLASSIC49097

SPEAR tools should check if the default output directory is writeable before
processing.

CLASSIC68532

The Seamless Mosaic tool issued error messages with some TIFF images.

CLASSIC66760

ENVI Classic crashed when opening seven-band ERDAS Imagine files from
a geodatabase.

CLASSIC59642

ENVI needs a bookmark system to save locations of interest in a scene.

Backward-Compatibility Notes
These items pertain to the ENVI application programming interface (API):

ENVITaskParameter: the DIRECTION property now returns INPUT or OUTPUT. In

previous releases, it returned IN, OUT, or IN/OUT.

ENVIRPCOrthorectificationTask: the options for the

DEM_IS_HEIGHT_ABOVE_ELLIPSOID property are true or false. In previous
releases, the options were 0 or 1. The OUTPUT_INTERPOLATION_METHOD
property was renamed to RESAMPLING. It uses string values instead of integers.

ENVIReprojectGLTTask: the options for the POLAR property are true or false. In
previous releases, the options were 0 or 1.

ENVIRadiometricCalibrationTask: the CALIBRATION_TYPE and

OUTPUT_DATA_TYPE properties use string values instead of integers.