Chinese satellite photogrammetry without ground control points based on a public DEM using an efficient and robust DEM matching method

Abstract

ABSTRACTPhotogrammetry based on high-resolution satellite image can acquire geospatial information within a large area rapidly and timely, but its geopositioning accuracy is highly dependent on ground control points. Under the background of global mapping, a public digital elevation model (DEM) assisted Chinese satellite image geopositioning scheme was proposed to realize satellite photogrammetry without ground control points. To make full use of public DEM advantages of consistent and high accuracy, public DEM was regarded as reference data and matched with the DEM extracted from image, and then the determined transformation parameters were applied to correct direct georeferencing results in object space. A fast least Z-difference method combined with least trimmed squares estimator was proposed to achieve DEM matching, which can not only automatically select corresponding point determination model, but also self-adaptively detect and eliminate difference between DEMs. Multi-groups of comparative experiments using Mapping Satellite-1 and ZiYuan-3 surveying satellite images were designed. Experimental results show that the DEM assisted geopositioning scheme exploits advantages of reference DEM, which can greatly improve the accuracy of photogrammetry without ground control points to a relatively high level. The geopositioning accuracy of image is largely determined by, but not confined to, the accuracy of reference DEM, but it is slightly affected by the resolution of reference DEM. If target DEM resolution is relatively high, the geopositioning accuracy of a single image assisted by Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) DEM can satisfy the accuracy requirements of 1:50,000 scale mapping perfectly. This scheme also has good robustness and high computational efficiency.