Automated Mismatch Detection based on Matching and Robust Estimation for Automated Image Navigation

Ground processing for geostationary weather satellite such as GOES, MTSAT includes the process called image navigation. Image navigation means the retrieval of satellite navigational parameters from images and requires landmark detection by matching satellite images against landmark chips. For an automated preprocessing, a matching must be performed automatically. However, if match results contain errors, the accuracy of image navigation deteriorates. To overcome this problem, we propose the use of a robust estimation technique, called Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC), to automatically detect mismatches. We tested GOES-9 satellite images with 30 landmark chips. Landmark chips were extracted from the world shoreline database. To them, matching was applied and mismatch results were detected automatically by RANSAC. Results showed that all mismatches were detected correctly by RANSAC with a threshold value of 2.5 pixels.