How do I properly set the cell size that I want when converting polygons to raster files?
Also on the raster file Layer Properties what exactly does the Cell Size indicate, as it doesn't seem to correlate when I measure a cell?
Here is the background to my question.
I'm converting a shapefile that represents radio signal strength to a raster file. The shapefile is made up of polygons that each represent average signal strength inside that polygon. Each polygon is 3 x 3 arc-seconds with a single value to represent signal strength. In my area 3 x 3 arc-seconds equates to about a 76.8 meter x 92.6 meter rectangle. When I convert to raster I would like to have similar resolution, so I was hoping that when I converted the shapefile each cell could be approximately the same size or smaller than the 76.8 meter x 92.6 meter rectangle polygons.
Using the "polygon to raster tool" Figure 1, it automatically sets the cell size to .0052. What units is that in?
When I look at the new raster file, Figure 2, it clearly states that the cell size is .0052 x .0052 but I see nothing that specifies what units .0052 represents.
Measuring the individual cells however, I get measurements that don't seem to correspond to .0052 of any units I've tried, Figure 3. Here using the pixel inspector I identified an individual cell and found it to be about 577.86 x 475.1 meter or 1,885.4 x 1,559.03 feet.
Just to be complete here are the Dataframe setting in Figure 4 showing that the units are in Feet.