AUTOMATIC PRECISION CORRECTION OF SATELLITE IMAGES

Precision correction is the process of geometrically aligning images to a reference coordinate system using GCPs(Ground Control Points). Many applications of remote sensing data, such as change detection, mapping and environmental monitoring, rely on the accuracy of precision correction. However it is a very time consuming and laborious process. It requires GCP collection, the identification of image points and their corresponding reference coordinates. At typical satellite ground stations, GCP collection requires most of man-powers in processing satellite images. A method of automatic registration of satellite images is demanding. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for automatic precision correction by GCP chips and RANSAC(Random Sample Consensus). The algorithm is divided into two major steps. The first one is the automated generation of ground control points. An automated stereo matching based on normalized cross correlation will be used. We have improved the accuracy of stereo matching by determining the size and shape of match windows according to incidence angle and scene orientation from ancillary data. The second one is the robust estimation of mapping function from control points. We used the RANSAC algorithm for this step and effectively removed the outliers of matching results. We carried out experiments with SPOT images over three test sites which were taken at different time and look-angle with each other. Left image was used to select UP chipsets and right image to match against GCP chipsets and perform automatic registration. In result, we could show that our approach of automated matching and robust estimation worked well for automated registration.