Extracting one band from three band raster in ArcMap?

Question

I'm fairly new to ArcGIS and I get into trouble extracting a single band layer from a raster image .img in ArcMap that I want to use after in zonal statistics. So far, all help I found is to do the operation in the other way around and merge bands and some explanation by using the python code. But I would like to use ArcMap interface.

I tried to create a single layer from ArcCatalog and import it to ArcMap but I get a layer and not a raster. I also tried to import my image.img in ArcMap but then I don't find anything to extract only a specific band.

Answer 1

The Geoprocessing tool that will extract out a single band from your three band raster is the Make Raster layer tool. You would set the band index parameter to the band you wish to extract.

This is a quick and easy way to extract the band and as its a tool you could embed it into a models workflow. Note its not a permanent layer so you would need to save it off if you wanted to give it to another person.

Answer 2

If you double click on your raster when you add it, it will become possible to select a single band. You can then export this single band using "right click" export data, but this is not necessary.

Answer 3

This uses Geoprocessing rather than the ArcMap GUI but it has a bit more flexibility.

Use the Composite Band tool under Data Management->Raster->Raster Processing. Open the tool dialog and expand your raster in catalog tree (showing the individual raster bands). Now drag whatever bands you want into the Input Rasters box and name the output whatever you like. This tool can be used to extract any number of bands from a raster or to combine any number of bands.

Answer 4

An Esri Technical Support How To: Extract a single band from a multiple band raster provides five ways to extract a single band from a multiband raster in ArcMap.

A raster with multiple bands contains multiple spatially coincident matrices of cell values representing the same spatial area. Each band consists of an array of pixels (cells), and each pixel has a value. An example of a multiple band raster is a true color orthophoto in which there are three bands, each representing red, green, or blue light.