Automated geometric correction of multispectral images from High Resolution CCD Camera (HRCC) on-board CBERS-2 and CBERS-2B

China–Brazil Earth Resource Satellite (CBERS) imagery is identified as one of the potential data sources for monitoring Earth surface dynamics in the event of a Landsat data gap. Currently available multispectral images from the High Resolution CCD (Charge Coupled Device) Camera (HRCC) on-board CBERS satellites (CBERS-2 and CBERS-2B) are not precisely geo-referenced and orthorectified. The geometric accuracy of the HRCC multispectral image product is found to be within 2–11 km. The use of CBERS-HRCC multispectral images to monitor Earth surface dynamics therefore necessitates accurate geometric correction of these images. This paper presents an automated method for geo-referencing and orthorectifying the multispectral images from the HRCC imager on-board CBERS satellites. Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) Level 1T (L1T) imagery provided by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is employed as reference for geometric correction. The proposed method introduces geometric distortions in the reference image prior to registering it with the CBERS-HRCC image. The performance of the geometric correction method was quantitatively evaluated using a total of 100 images acquired over the Andes Mountains and the Amazon rainforest, two areas in South America representing vastly different landscapes. The geometrically corrected HRCC images have an average geometric accuracy of 17.04 m (CBERS-2) and 16.34 m (CBERS-2B). While the applicability of the method for attaining sub-pixel geometric accuracy is demonstrated here using selected images, it has potential for accurate geometric correction of the entire archive of CBERS-HRCC multispectral images.