A generic pushbroom sensor model for high-resolution satellite imagery applied to SPOT5, Quickbird and ALOS data sets

A new generic pushbroom sensor model for high-resolution satellite images is presented. The sensor orbit and attitudes are modelled by splines. In order to determine the parameters of the orbit and attitude splines, direct observations for the satellite orbits and attitudes that are provided by the data vendors in metadata files are considered. As these direct observations are usually contaminated by systematic errors, the pushbroom sensor model also requires a correction model for these systematic errors. Unfortunately, the definitions of file formats and model parameters provided by the vendors are usually different and sometimes not compatible with a sensor model based on a perspective transformation. Our new sensor model is designed to be applicable to a large variety of sensors. Vendor-specific definitions are mapped to the definitions of our sensor model during data import. A rigorous model is employed for compensating systematic errors in the orbit and attitude data. In this paper, we present the sensor model and describe the way the vendor-specific definitions are mapped to the definitions of the new sensor model for Quickbird, SPOT 5 and ALOS/PRISM. First results for the correction of systematic errors will be given for Quickbird and SPOT 5 for test sites in Melbourne and Bhutan. * Corresponding author.