Co-registration of Chang’E-1 stereo images and laser altimeter data with crossover adjustment and image sensor model refinement

Topographic information is of fundamental importance for various scientific investigations in lunar and planetary exploration. To provide high-precision, seamless mapping capability, it is critical to co-register image and altimetry data, the two major data sources for topographic modeling. This paper presents a method for co-registration of Chang’E-1 (CE-1) stereo images and laser altimeter (LAM) data with crossover adjustment and refinement of the image sensor model. The crossover adjustment is tested in a larger area (0–60°N, 50–0°W); the image refinement and co-registration with LAM data are tested in an area (46.2–50.0°N, 31.8–28.8°W) within the larger area. Experimental results demonstrate that this co-registration reduces the mean differences of inconsistency from more than 200 m to just 3.21 m in the Z direction of object space. In image space, the mean errors of homologous points both in the column and row directions are reduced to below 0.1 pixel. This indicates that the proposed crossover adjustment of LAM data and refinement of the CE-1 stereo image model can effectively improve co-registration of the two data sets.