Automated bias-compensation of rational polynomial coefficients of high resolution satellite imagery based on topographic maps

As the need for efficient methods to accurately update and refine geospatial satellite image databases is increasing, we have proposed the use of 3-dimensional digital maps for the fully-automated RPCs bias compensation of high resolution satellite imagery. The basic idea is that the map features are scaled and aligned to the image features, except for the local shift, through the RPCs-based image projection, and then the shifts are automatically determined over the entire image space by template-based edge matching of the heterogeneous data set. This enables modeling of RPCs bias compensation parameters for accurate georeferencing. The map features are selected based on four suggested rules. Experiments were carried out for three Kompsat-2 images and stereo IKONOS images with 1:5000 scale Korean national topographic maps. Image matching performance is discussed with justification of the parameter selection, and the georeferencing accuracy is analyzed. The experimental results showed the automated approach can achieve one-pixel level of georeferencing accuracy, enabling economical hybrid map creation as well as large scale map updates.