IMage-based satellite attitude estimation

Pushbroom sensors are widely used for earth observation from space; this camera captures 1-D image and uses straight motion of the satellite to build a 2-D image. Yet, attitude variations of the satellite during the aquisition process can lead to significant distortions in the 2-D image. Current solutions use inertial sensors to record attitude variations and correct images, but they are expensive and not accurate enough for high frequency variations. In this paper, we expose the problem and present an image registration method to estimate the satellite´s attitude variations, and thus correct the distorted images. We use a Lucas Kanade framework to deduce the registration equation; the performances of our algorithm are shown on two satellite datasets.