Viewing geometry model evaluation for spaceborne pushbroom imagery

This paper analyses the accuracy of the orthorectification of the satellite imagery acquired by linear pushbroom sensors using the viewing model of the SPOT mission series. The effect of uncertainty of the initial values of the auxiliary ephemeris and attitude data on the accuracy of the mapping product was investigated. The optimal number and distribution of ground reference points depending on the used Digital Elevation Model was in the focus of the research. The proposed approach can be applied to other high resolution satellite imaging systems when the physical sensor model is known. A very good accuracy of geocoded image was achieved for SPOT-2 Level 1A imagery over Plovdiv (Bulgaria).