THEOS Geometric Image Quality Testing - Initial Findings

This report summarizes the initial outcome of the geometric quality testing of the panchromatic, pan-sharpening and multispectral THEOS images (level 1A and 2A) acquired over the JRC Maussane Test Site for the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) Control with Remote Sensing (CwRS) Programme. Based on the limited K2, THEOS and DMCII sample images that were made available to us the THEOS PAN orthoimage can reach 2m accuracy provided that a dedicated rigorous model based on at least 9 well-defined, well-distributed ground control points (GCPs) of high accuracy (i.e. RMSEx,y < 0.90m) is applied; while the orthorectified THEOS 1B MS product accuracy can reach 6.8m, provided that a dedicated rigorous model based on at least 9 well-distributed GCPs of appropriate accuracy is appliedJRC.DG.G.3-Monitoring agricultural resource

New sensors benchmark report on WorldView-4 - Geometric benchmarking over Maussane test site for CAP purposes

Imagery collected by recently launched WorldView-4 satellite can be potentially used in The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) image acquisition Campaign. The qualification and certificate is conducted by performing benchmarking tests, i.e. it has to be checked whether planimetric accuracy of produced orthoimagery does not exceed certain values regulated by JRC. Therefore, benchmarking tests were carried out on three WorldView-4 imagery collected in March and April 2017. This report describes in details how the tests were performed i.e. auxiliary data used, methodology and workflow as well as outcome from the Internal Quality Control. However, to make the tests objective, the orthoimagery have been handed to JRC for External Quality Control which is a base for certification of the sensorJRC.D.5-Food Securit

New sensors benchmark report on Kompsat-3

The following document has been drawn up as a follow up to the Quality Control Record L [i] on the commissioning phase of the Kompsat-3 imagery, planned benchmarking tests as well as the methodology used in the tests. Benchmarking is necessary to be performed in order to estimate the usability of the imagery collected by particular sensor in The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) image acquisition Campaign. The main requirement that should be fulfilled concerns the planimetric accuracy of the orthoimagery which should not exceed particular thresholds given in VHR Specifications [iii]. The methodologies used in the benchmarking tests were performed based on Guidelines for Best Practice and Quality Checking of Ortho Imagery [ii]. However, in addition the tests were performed according to alternative methodology, described in [i], which differs from the standard one, the GCPs selection/measurement phase i.e. image to image correlation techniques are used.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

New sensors benchmark report on WorldView-3

Imagery collected by recently launched WorldView-3 satellite can be potentially used in The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) image acquisition Campaign. The qualification and certificate is conducted by performing benchmarking tests namely, it has to be checked whether planimetric accuracy of produced orthoimagery does not exceed certain values regulated by JRC. Therefore, benchmarking tests were carried out on two WorldView-3 imagery acquired in October and November 2014. This report describes in detail how the tests were performed i.e. auxiliary data used, methodology and workflow as well as outcome from the Internal Quality Control. However, to make the tests objective, the orthoimagery was handed to JRC for External Quality Control which is a base for certification of the sensor. Such external QC has been performed by the JRC and included in Chapter 7.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Sensitivity of the WorldView-2 satellite orthoimage horizontal accuracy with respect to sensor orientation method, number and distribution of ground control points, satellite off-nadir angles and strip length

Imagery acquired by the WorldView-2 (WV2) sensor is of potential interest to the Control with Remote Sensing (CwRS) Programme of the European Commission and therefore needs to be assessed. In details, the horizontal accuracy of the orthoimages which can be derived from WV2 imagery have to be concerned, recalling that in order to qualify WV2 as a Very High Resolution (VHR) prime sensor (i.e. a sensor suitable for measuring parcel areas to the accuracy requested by the Common Agriculture Policy - CAP regulation), the CwRS guidelines requires that the one-dimensional RMSE error (i.e. in the East and North components) measured on the external Check Points - CPs for any orthoimage should not exceed 2.5 m. This report summarizes the results regarding the orientation tests of the five WorldView-2 Panchromatic (WV2 PAN) images acquired over the JRC Maussane Test Site (Provence, Southern France), two Pan-sharpened (WV2 PANSHP) images (COSE_MODE_1) acquired over Cosenza Test Site (Southern Italy) and 9 Pan-sharpned (WV2 PANSHP) scenes (COSE_MODE_3) acquired over Cosenza Test Site (Southern Italy), carried out with Geomatica (PCI Geomatics), ERDAS Imagine 2011 and SISAR software, using both Rigorous model and Rational Polynomial Functions (RPFs) model with Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPCs). The Hold-Out-Validation accuracy assessment method (HOV) was considered, computing the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the residuals between the estimated and the reference positions of the Check Points (CPs) for each horizontal component (East, North) varying the number of the GCPs. In addition the Leave-One-Out Cross Validation (LOOCV) method was been used to identify possible outliers.JRC.H.4-Monitoring Agricultural Resource

Kompsat-2 Geometric Quality Assessment for Measuring the Area of European Land Parcels

Measurement errors in orthorectified imagery are very important when it comes to checking the subsidies claims made by European farmers. The Control with Remote Sensing (CwRS) Programme managed by the GeoCAP and CID actions of the Monitoring Agricultural Resources Unit of the EC Joint Research Centre (JRC) requires the establishment of guidelines to be applied by Member States when using remotely sensed imagery to verify farmers¿ claims under the EU Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) subsidies. The area of land parcels used for farming are verified based on very fine spatial resolution (VHR) orthoimages that must meet specific geometric and visual qualities. As such, all VHR orthoimages used within this context must meet or exceed the EU standard as reported in KAPNIAS et al. (2008) based on external quality control (EQC). EQC is based on the root-mean-square (RMS) error between the true geographic position and the image position of the independent check points (ICPs). The ICP are points not included in sensor model parameter estimation process and derived from an independent source preferably of higher accuracy. This report presents the applied EQC methodology and the geometric quality results recorded for the four samples of the Kompsat-2 (K2) radiometrically corrected images (processing level 1R) acquired over the JRC Maussane Test Site. The key issues identified during the testing based on the limited Kompsat-2 sample images that were made available to us are as follows: (1) The 1-D RMS errors measured on the final K2 orthoimage after the single scene correction applying either the PCI rigorous model, the PCI RPC-based or the ERDAS RPC-based model are not sensitive to the number of GCPs used if they are well-distributed and range between 9 and 15 (provided a DTM with 0.6m vertical accuracy); and they are sensitive to the overall off-nadir angle and increase with increasing off-nadir angle. (2) The average 1-D RMSE are 2.1m and 4m, while the maximum 1-D RMSE values are 3.2m and 6.2m of Easting and Northing direction respectively, provided a DTM with 0.6m vertical accuracy and the GCPs with mean RMSEx, RMSEy of 0.60 are used. (3) The orthorectified Kompsat-2 imagery do not fall within the accuracy criteria of the CwRS 1:10.000 scale requirements, i.e. an absolute 1-D RMSE not exceeding 2.5m, except where the imagery is characterised by an overall off-nadir angle close to zero degrees and the rigorous model or first order Rational Polynomial sensor model is applied.JRC.H.4-Monitoring Agricultural Resource

The potential of WorldView-2 for ortho-image production within the "Control with Remote Sensing Programme" of the European Commission

The imagery acquired by the WorldView-2 sensor is of potential interest for the Control with Remote Sensing Programme of the European Commission, and therefore, should be assessed. The horizontal accuracy of the ortho-images that can be derived from WorldView-2 imagery need to be considered since the Control with Remote Sensing guidelines require that the one-dimensional Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) estimated on the external Check Points for any ortho-image should not exceed 2.5 m in order to qualify WorldView-2 as a Very High Resolution prime sensor. This work summarizes the results regarding the orientation tests for five totally overlapping WorldView-2 Panchromatic images acquired at the Maussane test site (Provence, southern France), two Pan-sharpened images acquired at the Cosenza test site (southern Italy), and nine Pan-sharpened scenes also acquired at the Cosenza test site. Tests were carried out using the Geomatica 10.2 (PCI Geomatics), the ERDAS Imagine 2011, and the SISAR software using both a rigorous model and Rational Polynomial Functions (RPFs) model with Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPCs). The Hold-Out-Validation accuracy assessment method was considered by computing the RMSE of the residuals between estimated and reference positions of the Check Points for each horizontal component (East, North) by varying the number of Ground Control Points. In addition, the Leave-One-Out Cross Validation method was used to identify possible outliers. The following conclusions regarding the orientation were drawn. The best orientation accuracy over both sites was reached using the RPFs model with the RPCs supplied by imagery metadata and by applying a shift refinement even with four Ground Control Points. Further, the orientation accuracy was practically software independent but displayed significant dependence on the off-nadir angle (a higher accuracy for the lower off-nadir angle). Concerning the Cosenza test site, it appeared more convenient to process the two long strips (up to 28 km) instead of the corresponding separate nine scenes, since for the former case the achieved orientation accuracy was practically the same, whereas the number of required Ground Control Points was much lower. In regards to the subsequent ortho-image validation, the already mentioned requirement, a one-dimensional RMSE below 2.5 m for each horizontal component, can be reached provided that a good quality Digital Surface Model (DSM) is used. For the Maussane test site all the ortho-images satisfied the previous requirement. Since a DSM with an appropriate accuracy was not available, the results for the Cosenza test site were not considered significantly representative of the real potential of the WorldView-2 sensor, so are not presented. In order to evaluate the potentialities of WorldView-2 stereopairs for generating a DSM suitable for ortho-imagery production, tests were carried out using overlapping images from the Maussane Site Test. The results indicated that proper stereopairs could be an effective additional resource in the event of a lack of external good quality DSMs. 0 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved