DISCUSSION ON HEIGHT SYSTEMS IN STEREOSCOPIC MAPPING USING THE ZY-3 SATELLITE IMAGES

Abstract. The ZY-3 is the civil high-resolution optical stereoscopic mapping satellite independently developed by China. It is mainly used for 1 : 50,000 scale topographic mapping. One of the distinguishing features of the ZY-3 is that the panchromatic triplet camera can obtain thousands of kilometers of continuous strip stereo data. The working mode is suitable for wide-range stereoscopic mapping, in particular global DEM extraction. The ZY-3 constellation is operated in a sun-synchronous at an altitude 505 km, with a 10:30 AM equator crossing time and a 29-day revisiting period. The panchromatic triplet sensors have excellent base-to-height ratio, which is advantageous for obtaining good mapping accuracy.
In this paper the China quasi-geoid, EGM2008 and the height conversion method are discussed. It is pointed out that according to the current surveying and mapping specifications, almost all maps and charts use mean sea level for elevation. Experiments on bundle adjustment and DEM extraction with different height systems have been carried out in Liaoning Province of China. The results show that the similar accuracy can be obtained using different elevation system. According to the principle of geodesy and photogrammetry, it is recommended to use ellipsoidal height for satellite photogrammetric calculation and use the orthometric height in mapping production.