Abstract
Abstract. Since the beginning of 2012, the first Pleiades-HR satellite of the program conducted by the French National Space Agency, CNES, delivers 20 km wide color scenes with a 70 cm ground sampling distance. A second satellite should be launched in 2013 which will achieve an almost world-wide coverage with a revisit interval of 24h. The assessment of the image quality and the calibration operation have been performed by CNES Image Quality team during the 6 month commissioning phase that followed the satellite launch. The geometric commissioning activities consist in improve the geometric quality of the images in order to meet very demanding specifications as localization accuracy, local coherence, dynamic stability, length alteration … This goal has been achieved through the implementation of new methods of calibration and performance assessment. Some of these methods are based on the exploitation of very specific satellite acquisitions that have been achieved thanks to the amazing agility of the Pleiades satellite. Thus, many stars acquisitions and very slow earth pictures have been processed to characterize dynamic phenomena. Similarly, “along-cross track” pairs have been exploited to improve the accuracy of the focal plane description. This paper deals with these new methods. It describes their accuracy and their operational interests.
Highlights
The in-orbit commissioning phase aims to calibrate some parameters to achieve the best quality on images
This paper describes the main geometric calibrations implemented on the satellite PHR-1A during the first phase of in-orbit commissioning led by the CNES [13]
We have deliberately focused on the description of new and innovative methods, that were made possible thanks to the great agility of the satellite
Summary
The in-orbit commissioning phase aims to calibrate some parameters to achieve the best quality on images. This paper describes the main geometric calibrations implemented on the satellite PHR-1A during the first phase of in-orbit commissioning led by the CNES [13] They consist principally in asses the main biases of the location model to improve its accuracy and achieve an accurate cartography of the focal plane in order to improve registration of the different bands and correct local distortions. We have pointed out the accuracy of these methods and given an estimation of the main geometric performance reached by the satellite after three months of inorbit settings. All these results must be consolidated, but they prefigure the final geometric quality image performances of the system Pleiades
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