Accuracy Investigation of Orthoimages Obtained from High Resolution Satellite Stereo Pairs

This study investigates the geometric accuracy of DSMs and orthoimages, which are obtained from high resolution satellite stereo pairs of in-track, cross-track and mixed satellite images. Four IKONOS and two QuickBird panchromatic images are used to constitute 15 stereo pairs, and are processed to generate DSMs and orthoimages. A geometric stereo model, which represents the stereo acquisition geometry of a satellite stereo pair is applied to investigate the relationship between the geometric accuracy of DSMs and orthoimages and the parameters of the geometric stereo model. The results showed that the geometric accuracy is mainly influenced by two parameters, i.e. base-height ratio (B/H) and bisector elevation (BIE). And, if the stereo acquisition geometry is ideal, high accuracy DSMs and orthoimages can also be obtained by cross-track stereo and mixed satellite stereo pairs. * Corresponding author.