Geometric accuracy evaluation and analysis of ZY-1 02E IRS thermal infrared image data using GCP extraction based on phase correlation matching method

Abstract. The Ziyuan-1 (ZY-1) 02E launched on December 26, 2021 is equipped with a thermal infrared sensor (IRS), which has a ground resolution of better than 16m and a width priority of 115km, balancing the advantages of high resolution and large wide observation. The geometric performance of image data is the premise of remote sensing application, and the difficulty in evaluating the geometric performance of thermal infrared image data lies in the extraction of well-distributed, reliable and accurate GCPs. To extract GCP from high-precision reference images, it is necessary to overcome the feature differences between images caused by different spectral responses. This paper adopts a phase correlation matching method based on frequency domain to realize the fine registration of the data obtained by the emission thermal spectral band with the data from the reflectance spectral band, which can not only solve the GCP extraction of conventional thermal infrared images collected during the day, but also obtain satisfactory GCP data from thermal infrared data acquired at night. In order to test the GCP method proposed in this paper, three typical areas are selected as the experimental areas, including Yiyang City in Hunan, Nagqu City in Xizang and Hami City in Xinjiang, and the internal geometric accuracy and absolute geolocation accuracy of the thermal infrared data spanning one year are evaluated and analyzed by using the reference data composed of the DOM with an accuracy of 2m and the DEM with an accuracy of 10m. The research results indicate that the internal geometric accuracy of ZY-1 02E IRS satellite image data is better than 1.0 pixels, and the performance is satisfactory. However, its absolute geolocation accuracy needs to be continuously improved, especially there are systematic errors in the ascending data at night that require further research. Overall, it meets the design accuracy indicators of satellites and can meet the application requirements of thermal infrared remote sensing.