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Abstract
The Digital Sensor System (DSS) is a fully integrated fully digital ruggedized system for airborne image acquisition, georeferencing, and map production. The DSS consists of a 4K x 4K digital camera, a GPS-aided INS direct georeferencing system, and a flight management system. The DSS digital camera component uses a CCD chip with a 9 µm pixel size which allows digital image acquisition with a Ground Sample Distance that ranges from 0.05 m to 1.0 m using its 35 mm and 55 mm lenses. The embedded POS AV direct georeferencing system provides the exterior orientation parameters in both real-time and post-mission modes. The DSS is used primarily to generate high-resolution color and color infrared digital orthophotos and orthomosaics. The DSS data interfaces directly and seamlessly with commercial off-the-shelf photogrammetric software to allow for fast map production. Orthophotos are created using the DSS-derived directly georeferenced digital images and a Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The orthophotos and/or orthomosaics can then be used for many different mapping, GIS and remote sensing applications. Examples of these are updating and maintaining cadastral GIS databases, classifying and mapping pervious and impervious surface areas, identifying wetland areas, updating land use maps, estimating crop yields and health, preparing timber stand inventories, planning for new construction sites, verifying areas for licensing and permitting. Many of these applications involve small localized areas, corridors, or irregular spot shots, which make the DSS the suitable tool for such projects. In this paper, an overview of the DSS system design, calibration, and performance is presented, while DEM extraction and orthophoto generation using the DSS is discussed in some detail using real mapping missions.