Refined Satellite Image Orientation in the Free Open-Source Photogrammetric Tools Apero/Micmac

This publication presents the RPC-based bundle adjustment implemented in the freeware open-source photogrammetric tool Apero/MicMac. The bundle adjustment model is based on some polynomial correction functions, enriched with a physical constraint that introduces the notion of a global sensor rotation into the model. The devised algorithms are evaluated against two datasets consisting of two stereo and a triplet pair of the Pleiades images. Two sets of correction functions and a number of GCPs configurations are examined. The obtained geo-referencing accuracy falls below the size of 1GSD.