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 (GcPs) used for the sensor orientation were tested. Planimetric Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE2D) 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 (mico). Furthermore, the RPC0 sensor model proved to be significantly independent regarding the number and distribution of the GCPs. The RPC0 model yielded RMSE2D 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.