Remotely Sensed Ground Control Points

Abstract. Accurate ground control is required to georeferenced airborne and spaceborne images. The production of ortho-photogrammetric data requires ground control that is traditionally provided as Ground Control Points (GCPs) by GNSS measurements in the field. However, it can be difficult to acquire accurate ground control points due to required turn-around time, high costs or impossible access. CompassData, Inc. a specialist in ground control, has expanded its service to deliver Remotely Sensed Ground Control Points (RSGCPs®). TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X are two satellites with such high accuracy of their orbital positions and SAR data that RSGCPs® can be produced to a sub-meter quality depending on certain parameters and circumstances. The technology and required parameters are discussed in this paper as well as the resulting accuracies.