Moving Targets Velocity and Direction Estimation by Using a Single Optical VHR Satellite Imagery

The present contribution demonstrates the feasibility and explores the limits of a new method for estimating the velocity and direction of moving targets using a single VHR satellite dataset. The method is based on the fact that there is a time lag between the data collection of the panchromatic (PAN) and multi-spectral (MS) sensors in the same VHR platform. Consequently, it is developed around three main steps: i) accurate image-to-image registration between MS and PAN images with a sub-pixel displacement error, ii) precise location of barycentre of targets by mathematical morphology-based image transforms, and iii) estimation of the targets ground velocity and direction using the MS-PAN spatial displacement, the known time lag, and an image-to-ground transformation taking into account the interior and exterior orientation of the sensors and a terrain height reference. An evaluation of the reliability and limits of the proposed method based on the observation of the results regarding manually-selected moving and non-moving targets is included.

PESARESI Martino;  GUTJAR K.H.;  PAGOT Elodie; 

2007-12-06

GITC bv

JRC37843

http://www.ipk.bv.tum.de/isprs/pia07/pia07_pro.html,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC37843,