Improvement of georeferencing accuracy of lower resolution images based on high resolution feature matching technique

Abstract - A High Resolution Feature Matching (HRFM) technique is presented in this paper to solve the problem of identifying well distributed Ground Control Points (GCP) on lower resolution images. The technique is based on identification of GCPs on a higher resolution image and then transferring the GCP cross-sections to the lower resolution image based on nearest neighbor feature matching. This technique renders the geo-referencing accuracy to sub-pixel level and is found very useful for geo-referencing lower resolution images including microwave images. The geo-reference accuracy based on the HRFM technique is found to be less dependent of the resolution of the target image which suggests a high degree of potential improvement of geo-reference accuracy for low resolution images such as NOAA, MODIS etc. Keywords - Georeferencing, sub-pixel accuracy, ground control points, high resolution, feature matching