What is the intended purpose of raster pyramids?

Raster pyramids are designed to enhance display performance, particularly for large raster datasets. They achieve this by creating lower-resolution versions of the original raster images. These lower-resolution images allow for quicker visualization on-screen when the user is zoomed out or viewing the dataset at a smaller scale, as it reduces the amount of data that needs to be processed and rendered.

When viewing large datasets that contain a substantial amount of pixel data, downloading and rendering the full-resolution image can be slow and cumbersome. By utilizing raster pyramids, the software can efficiently fetch the appropriate resolution based on the current scale, resulting in a smoother and faster user experience. This capability is particularly valuable when working with high-resolution imagery across extensive geographic areas.

In contrast, smaller raster datasets generally do not experience the same performance issues, as the data is manageable even at full resolution. Consequently, the primary benefit of raster pyramids is linked to improving the display performance of larger rasters.