Sparse GCPs supported high-resolution airborne SAR triangulation test in China
Pang Lei, Zhang Jixian, Yan Qin
Institute of photogrammetry and remote sensing
Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping
Beitaiping road 16, Haidian district, Beijing, P. R. China 100039
Phone :+86 10 88229545 ,Fax :0086 10 68211420
E-mail: Panglei.mail@163.com,
stecsm@public.bta.net.cn
Zhang Mingbo
Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS
Datun Road 3, Chaoyang district, Beijing, P. R. China 100101
Phone: +86 10 64861632 -184, Fax :0086 10 64851844
E-mail: zhangmb@lreis.ac.cn
ABSTRACT Presently, high-resolution airborne SAR imagery has often been chosen as the
irreplaceable remote sensing data resource in mapping some cloudy or soupy mountainous areas.
At the same time, the mission that how to acquire enough accuracy and quantity of ground
control points (GCPs), which are difficult to be measured practically, has become an urgent
demand for mapping tasks. This paper discusses the aerial triangulation mathematical model
from airborne SAR images, with which only sparse GCPs are available. And, with navigation
data provided from GPS/INS system, it puts forward the corresponding technique flows. Lastly,
the high-resolution airborne SAR triangulation test in Zhengzhou, China, was introduced to
validate the model. In the test, we utilizing X-band, single antenna SAR sensor to acquire 1m
resolution airborne SAR remote sensing imagery, and the corresponding DGPS and INS data
synchronously. And under the condition of sparse GCPs available, combining with the SAR
imaging equation, we computed directly the ground coordinates of target points by multi-paths
block adjustment. And , the first test results have been presented.
1 INTRODUCTION
The technique problem that how to acquire enough accuracy and quantity of ground control
points (GCPs), which are very difficult to be measured practically, has become an urgent
demand for future mapping tasks. Although, the study to decrease the demand of GCPs in
mosaic of RADARSAT or ERS SAR images or acquiring dense GCPs network has been done
by Denise (1998), Belgued (1998) and Toutin (2003 )et al 1~6 , there has no corresponding study
on the method or models of high-resolution airborne SAR images triangulation.
Comparing with satellite-borne SAR images triangulation, the essence of high-resolution
airborne SAR triangulation is still the 3D space positioning from SAR images (Chang, 2002) 7 ,
which supported by only sparse GCPs or without GCPs. But, the method and mathematic
models must be based on the characteristics of airborne SAR imaging conditions and flight
tracks. So, we put forward the corresponding mathematic models supported by DGPS/INS, and
introduce the high-resolution airborne SAR triangulation test in China in the following parts.
