Accuracy assessment of stereo-extracted data from airborne SAR images

Abstract

The paper presents a method and results of stereo extraction of planimetric and altimetric features from digital airborne SAR data on a low cost PC based stereo-workstation (DVP). A challenging study area was chosen in a mountainous area of Costa Rica. Accuracies of 24 m, 39 m and 40m have been achieved for roads, creeks and digital elevation models respectively. Better contrasts in the feature definition is a key point to improve planimetric positioning accuracies. If roads and creeks accuracies are almost independent of the location in the stereo-model, larger intersection angles enable a better digital elevation model accuracy (around 20 per cent). Surprisingly, the type of the relief does not affect the results, except for very shallow angles. The multiple stereo capability of RADARSAT will be a valuable source to ensure precise results of this research.