Error Correction and Registration of Image Data

When image data is recorded by sensors on satellites and aircraft it can contain errors in geometry and in the measured brightness values of the pixels. The latter are referred to as radiometric errors and can result from the instrumentation used to record the data and from the effect of the atmosphere. Image geometry errors can arise in many ways. The relative motions of a satellite, its scanners and the earth, for example, can lead to errors of a skewing nature in an image product. Non-idealities in the sensors themselves, the curvature of the earth and uncontrolled variations in the position and attitude of the remote sensing platform can all lead to geometric errors of varying degrees of severity.