DEM matching for bias compensation of rigorous pushbroom sensor models

DEM matching is a technique to match two surfaces or two DEMs, at different reference frames. It was originally proposed to replace the need of ground control points for absolute orientation of perspective images. This paper examines DEM matching for precise mapping of pushbroom images without ground control points. We proved that DEM matching based on 3D similarity transformation can be used when model errors are only on the platform’s position and attitude biases. We also proposed how to estimate bias errors and how to update rigorous pushbroom sensor models from DEM matching results. We used a SPOT-5 stereo pair at ground sampling distance of 2.5 m and a reference DEM dataset at grid spacing of 30 m and showed that rigorous pushbroom models with accuracy better than twice of the ground sampling distance both in image and object space have been achieved through DEM matching. We showed further that DEM matching based on 3D similarity transformation may not work for pushbroom images with drift or drift rate errors. We discussed the effects of DEM outliers on DEM matching and automated removal of outliers. The major contribution of this paper is that we validate DEM matching, theoretically and experimentally, for estimating position and attitude biases and for establishing rigorous sensor models for pushbroom images.