Integrated Independent Geometric Calibration of Stereo Cameras Aboard an Optical Satellite

Geometric calibration (GC) is a technique to compensate for the systematic errors in the imaging model of an optical satellite. The independent GC method without use of ground calibration site has been studied in recent years. In this paper, an integrated independent method aiming to the GC of stereo cameras aboard an optical satellite is presented. Supported by the satellite's stereo imaging ability, this method can overcome the strong correlation between the elevation error and camera GC accuracy, and get rid of the dependency on the constraints of ground elevation further. The real data collected by the stereo three-linear camera (TLC) of ZY-3 satellite was used to verify this method. The satisfactory GC accuracy better than 1 pixel indicated that the presented method effectively compensated for systematic errors, and improved the geometric quality of TLC images together.