Combined Efficiency of RPC and DEM Accuracy on Georeferencing Accuracy of Orthoimage: Case Study With Pleiades Panchromatic Mono Image

Generation of orthoimages in remote sensing and photogrammetry is a common and sometimes mandatory issue. The desired georeferencing accuracy of the orthoimage depends on two main factors: accuracy of transformation parameters and density and accuracy of height information. The objective of this letter is to estimate the combined efficiency of accuracies of refined rational polynomial coefficients and digital elevation models on georeferencing accuracy of the orthoimage utilizing the figure condition method (FCM). In this letter, details of the method, the characteristics of the evaluated Pleiades panchromatic mono image and auxiliary data, and also the test site are presented. The findings were compared with other results from high-resolution satellite images such as those from IKONOS, QuickBird, and OrbView-3. It is observed that the FCM might be preferred to estimate the overall georeferencing accuracy of an orthoimage, reaching +/- 0.3-2.7-pixel accuracy range. The Pleiades panchromatic mono image presents almost equal accuracy as the compared images. The research was carried out on the Zonguldak (Turkey) test site which has mountainous and extremely undulating topography.