Quantitative Estimation and Validation of the Effects of the Convergence, Bisector Elevation, and Asymmetry Angles on the Positioning Accuracies of Satellite Stereo Pairs

Abstract

The convergence, bisector elevation (BIE), and asymmetry angles are three angles that describe the geometric conditions in stereo imaging. In this study, the effects of the angles on the positioning accuracies of stereo pairs were investigated. First, through careful observation of the stereo geometry that determines the ray-intersection in object space, the effects of the angles were visualized and quantified. Second, formulas to estimate the positioning errors, including these quantified effects, were proposed. Third, the formulas were validated using real satellite data. Our experiment results confirmed the accuracy variations due to the angles, both visually and quantitatively, and that all angles may significantly affect both the horizontal and vertical accuracies, particularly for dual-satellite stereo with weak geometry. The primary contributions of this paper are the provision of theoretical background of the effects of the angles and experimental confirmations of the quantitative effects of them on the stereo positioning accuracies.