<s>
GeoTIFF	B-Application
is	O
a	O
public	O
domain	O
metadata	O
standard	O
which	O
allows	O
georeferencing	B-General_Concept
information	O
to	O
be	O
embedded	O
within	O
a	O
TIFF	O
file	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
potential	O
additional	O
information	O
includes	O
map	B-Application
projection	I-Application
,	O
coordinate	O
systems	O
,	O
ellipsoids	O
,	O
datums	O
,	O
and	O
everything	O
else	O
necessary	O
to	O
establish	O
the	O
exact	O
spatial	O
reference	O
for	O
the	O
file	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
format	O
is	O
fully	O
compliant	O
with	O
TIFF	O
6.0	O
,	O
so	O
software	O
incapable	O
of	O
reading	O
and	O
interpreting	O
the	O
specialized	O
metadata	O
will	O
still	O
be	O
able	O
to	O
open	O
a	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
format	O
file	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
An	O
alternative	O
to	O
the	O
"	O
inlined	O
"	O
TIFF	O
geospatial	O
metadata	O
is	O
the	O
*	O
.tfw	O
World	O
File	O
sidecar	O
file	O
format	O
which	O
may	O
sit	O
in	O
the	O
same	O
folder	O
as	O
the	O
regular	O
TIFF	O
file	O
to	O
provide	O
a	O
subset	O
of	O
the	O
functionality	O
of	O
the	O
standard	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
described	O
here	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
format	O
was	O
originally	O
created	O
by	O
Dr.	O
Niles	O
Ritter	O
while	O
he	O
was	O
working	O
at	O
the	O
NASA	O
Jet	O
Propulsion	O
Laboratory	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
reference	O
implementation	O
code	O
was	O
released	O
mostly	O
as	O
public	B-Application
domain	I-Application
software	I-Application
with	O
some	O
parts	O
under	O
a	O
permissive	B-License
X	B-License
license	I-License
.	O
</s>
<s>
On	O
September	O
14	O
,	O
2019	O
,	O
the	O
Open	O
Geospatial	O
Consortium	O
published	O
the	O
OGC	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
standard	O
,	O
which	O
defines	O
the	O
Geographic	O
Tagged	O
Image	O
File	O
Format	O
(	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
)	O
by	O
specifying	O
requirements	O
and	O
encoding	O
rules	O
for	O
using	O
the	O
Tagged	O
Image	O
File	O
Format	O
(	O
TIFF	O
)	O
for	O
the	O
exchange	O
of	O
georeferenced	O
or	O
geocoded	O
imagery	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
OGC	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
1.1	O
standard	O
formalizes	O
the	O
existing	O
community	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
specification	O
version	O
1.0	O
and	O
aligns	O
it	O
with	O
the	O
continuing	O
addition	O
of	O
data	O
to	O
the	O
EPSG	O
Geodetic	O
Parameter	O
Dataset	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
"	O
Cloud	O
Optimized	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
"	O
(	O
COG	O
)	O
is	O
a	O
standard	O
based	O
on	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
,	O
designed	O
to	O
make	O
it	O
straightforward	O
to	O
use	O
GeoTIFFs	B-Application
hosted	O
on	O
HTTP	B-Protocol
webservers	O
,	O
so	O
that	O
users	O
and	O
software	O
can	O
make	O
use	O
of	O
partial	O
data	O
within	O
the	O
file	O
without	O
having	O
to	O
download	O
the	O
entire	O
file	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
designed	O
to	O
work	O
with	O
HTTP	B-Protocol
range	O
requests	O
,	O
and	O
specifies	O
a	O
particular	O
layout	O
of	O
data	O
and	O
metadata	O
within	O
the	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
,	O
such	O
that	O
clients	O
can	O
predict	O
which	O
range	O
of	O
bytes	O
they	O
need	O
to	O
download	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
COG	O
is	O
simply	O
a	O
specialisation	O
of	O
GeoTIFF	B-Application
,	O
so	O
COG	O
files	O
are	O
TIFF	O
files	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
pattern	O
of	O
optimizing	O
GeoTIFFs	B-Application
for	O
HTTP	B-Protocol
range	O
requests	O
was	O
first	O
demonstrated	O
at	O
large	O
scale	O
when	O
AWS	B-Application
started	O
hosting	O
Landsat	O
data	O
on	O
Amazon	B-General_Concept
S3	I-General_Concept
in	O
2015	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
pattern	O
was	O
developed	O
into	O
the	O
COG	O
within	O
the	O
Open	O
Source	O
Geospatial	O
Foundation/GDAL	O
project	O
,	O
starting	O
in	O
around	O
2016	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
COG	O
format	O
can	O
be	O
read	O
and	O
written	O
by	O
many	O
common	O
geographic	O
software	O
tools	O
including	O
GDAL	B-Language
,	O
QGIS	B-Application
,	O
and	O
GeoTrellis	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Various	O
providers	O
now	O
supply	O
some	O
of	O
their	O
data	O
in	O
COG	O
format	O
,	O
including	O
USGS	O
,	O
NASA	O
,	O
Google	B-Application
and	O
DigitalGlobe	O
.	O
</s>
