Seodetic reference system transformations of 3D archival geospatial data using a single SSC terrasar-X image

Abstract

Many older maps were created using reference coordinate systems which are no longer available, either because no information to a datum was taken in the first place or the reference system is forgotten. In other cases the relationship between the map's coordinate system is not known with precision, meaning that its absolute error is much larger than its relative error. In this paper the georeferencing of medium-scale maps is computed using a single TerraSAR-X image. A single TerraSAR-X image has high geolocation accuracy but it has no 3D information. The map, however, provides the missing 3D information, and thus it is possible to compute the georeferencing of the map using the TerraSAR-X geolocation information, assembling the information of both sources to produce 3D points in the reference system of the TerraSAR-X image. Two methods based on this concept are proposed. The methods are tested with real world examples and the results are promising for further research.