• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.26 no.6D
• /
• pp.1025-1032
• /
• 2006

Sensor modeling of high-resolution satellites is a prerequisite procedure for mapping and GIS applications. Sensor models, describing the geometric relationship between scene and object, are divided into two main categories, which are rigorous and approximate sensor models. A rigorous model is based on the actual geometry of the image formation process, involving internal and external characteristics of the implemented sensor. However, approximate models require neither a comprehensive understanding of imaging geometry nor the internal and external characteristics of the imaging sensor, which has gathered a great interest within photogrammetric communities. This paper described a comparison between rigorous and various approximate sensor models that have been used to determine three-dimensional positions, and proposed the appropriate sensor model in terms of the satellite imagery usage. Through the case study of using IKONOS satellite scenes, rigorous and approximate sensor models have been compared and evaluated for the positional accuracy in terms of acquirable number of ground controls. Bias compensated RFM(Rational Function Model) turned out to be the best among compared approximate sensor models, both modified parallel projection and parallel-perspective model were able to be modelled with a small number of controls. Also affine transformation, one of the approximate sensor models, can be used to determine the planimetric position of high-resolution satellites and perform image registration between scenes.