DEM generation using Ziyuan-3 mapping satellite imagery without ground control points

ABSTRACT

This article proposes a digital elevation model (DEM) generation approach using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) DEM as the elevation constraint without ground control points. First, during the process of image block adjustment, we took advantage of the relatively high vertical accuracy of the SRTM-DEM in flat terrain regions and applied effective constraints on the object-space elevation-corrected value of tie points using the SRTM-DEM, achieving improved vertical accuracy for large-scale block adjustments. Subsequently, for the DEM matching process, multiple two-linear array stereo image pairs were obtained from along-track and across-track images with different look angles over the same region after the block adjustment. Then, the matching result of each stereo image pair underwent weighted fusion, before being used to generate the final DEM product. This approach can effectively enhance the matching quality and grid density of the final DEM product. The DEM generation experiment, using Ziyuan-3 images covering 186,000 km² of Hubei Province, China, showed that the matching quality of the 10 m grid DEM was excellent. The vertical root mean square errors were 1.5 m in the flat regions and 2.96 m in the mountainous regions, thus achieving China’s 1:25,000 scale specification requirement for DEM products.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Key Application Generic Technology of China High-resolution Earth Observation System: [Grant Number 11-Y20A13-9001-17/18] and the Special Fund for High Resolution Images Surveying and Mapping Application System: [Grant Number AH1601].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Key Application Generic Technology of China High-resolution Earth Observation System: [Grant Number 11-Y20A13-9001-17/18] and Special Fund for High Resolution Images Surveying and Mapping Application System: [Grant Number AH1601].