AN IMPROVED MODEL FOR ALONG TRACK STEREO SENSORS USING RIGOROUS ORBIT MECHANICS AND NAVIGATION DATA

In this paper a major improvement of the generic rigorous sensor model for along track stereo optical satellite sensors which has been developed at UCL over the last three years is introduced, in detail. This improved model is implemented for satellite images where information of the orbit (state vectors) of the acquired satellite is provided, as is usual nowadays. The main achievement is that the precision of the solution is improved along with the accuracy, as the correlation between the exterior parameters is dramatically eliminated. Moreover, it is possible to carry out self calibration without correlation of the exterior orientation parameters with the interior orientation parameters (even for the calculation of the focal length). This model can be solved directly if the attitude information needed for a photogrammetric solution is given or after a calibration process using a small number of GCPs, in order to calculate missing information. The model is evaluated using SPOT5-HRS imagery.