The Bright Future of High Resolution Satellite Remote Sensing – Will Aerial Photogrammetry Become Obsolete?

High resolution satellite systems today become more and more important. The reason is simple as the technology developments of the last ten years changed the situation dramatically. Satellite Constellations for observation with a very high spatial and radiometric resolution are now state of the art technology. Even systems with a spatial resolution of 50 cm are available with a brilliant image contrast and an extreme good signal to noise ratio. In terms of flexibility the high agility of such systems is one of the important parameters. Beyond the instrument and satellite technology, the importance of automatic data processing has increased. Deriving high resolution 3D models is one of the most challenging topics. To optimise such complex systems for certain tasks, the complete system chain has to be considered. This paper shows the status of the work and gives an outlook for the next generation of high-resolution optical satellite technology.