Automatic topographic features extraction from Pléiades HR and OrbView-5 simulated data.

In the next future new high-resolution (HR) multispectral, hyperspectral and radar satellite will be launched. In particular, from 2007 it is expected to be launched the first European satellite constellation with sub-meter resolution ORFEO (Optical and Radar Federated Earth Observation), composed of two French optical satellites (Pléiades HR) with 0.70 m resolution and four Italian X-band SAR satellites (COSMO-SkyMed). In the same year it is planned to be operative the first commercial ultra-high-resolution (UHR) satellite, OrbView-5, being able to collect imagery with 0.41 m resolution. This paper presents a first test of automatic topographic feature extraction – by means of the Automatic Ground control points Extraction (AGE) technique developed in the last years – for the future Pléiades HR and the OrbView-5 panchromatic data. Simulated images have been obtained both from 1:1,000 scale aerial othophotos and from a real QuickBird survey. Results showed that for the Pléiades HR satellites it is expected a metric precision of the extracted GCPs between 1.12 m and 2.07 m, while for the OrbView-5 it is expected a precision between 0.60 m and 1.10 m. These data are suitable for obtaining orthoimages with an RMSE better than 2.5 m for Pléiades HR and better than 1.5 m for OrbView-5, without any knowledge of the sensor model, of the satellite orientation and without any use of measured GCPs. Moreover, Plèiades HR results may be extended to the next generation Israeli EROS-B satellites, which will have a synchronous pushbroom high-resolution imaging camera with expected resolution of between 0.82 m and 0.70 m.