Bias Compensation for Rational Polynomial Coefficients of High-Resolution Satellite Imagery by Local Polynomial Modeling

Abstract

The Rational Function Model (RFM) is a widely used generic sensor model for georeferencing satellite images. Owing to inaccurate measurement of satellite orbit and attitude, the Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPCs) provided by image vendors are commonly biased and cannot be directly used for high-precision remote-sensing applications. In this paper, we propose a new method for the bias compensation of RPCs using local polynomial models (including the local affine model and the local quadratic model), which provides the ability to correct non-rigid RPC deformations. Performance of the proposed approach was evaluated using a stereo triplet of ZY-3 satellite images and compared with conventional global-polynomial-based models (including the global affine model and the global quadratic model). The experimental results show that, when the same polynomial form was used, the correction residuals of the local model could be notably smaller than those of the global model, which indicates that the new method has great ability to remove complex errors existed in vendor-provided RPCs. In the experiments of this study, the accuracy of the local affine model was nearly 15% better than that of the global affine model. Performance of the local quadratic model was not as good as the local affine model when the number of Ground Control Points (GCPs) was less than 10, but it improved rapidly with an increase in the number of redundant observations. In the test scenario with 15 GCPs, the accuracy of the local quadratic model was about 9% and 27% better than those of the local affine model and the global quadratic model, respectively.