Geopositioning Accuracy Assessment of GeoEye-1 Panchromatic and Multispectral Imagery

Currently GeoEye-1 is the World’s highest resolution commercial satellite. This paper analyses the attainable geopositioning accuracy from a single GeoEye-1 Geo image, both through the sensor orientation and orthorectification phases, for panchromatic ( PAN ) and multispectral ( MS ) products. Different 3D sensor models as well as the number and distribution of the ground control points ( GCP s) used for the sensor orientation were tested. Planimetric Root Mean Square Errors ( RMSE 2D ) close to 0.7 pixels, both for PAN and MS images, were attained using the third order 3D rational functions with the vendor’s rational polynomial coefficients data afterwards being refined by a zero order polynomial adjustment ( RPC 0). Furthermore, the RPC 0 sensor model proved to be significantly independent regarding the number and distribution of the GCP s. The RPC 0 model yielded RMSE 2D close to 0.46 m and 1.56 m for the PAN and MS orthorectified images, respectively, using a very accurate lidar-derived digital elevation model.