A Study on the RPC Model Generation from the Physical Sensor Model

The rational polynomial coefficients (RPC) model is a generalized sensor model that is used as an alternative solution for the physical sensor model for IKONOS of the Space Imaging. As the number of sensors increases along with greater complexity, and the standard sensor model is needed, the applicability of the RPC model is increasing. The RPC model has the advantages in being able to substitute for all sensor models, such as the projective, the linear pushbroom and the SAR. This report aimed to generate a RPC model from the physical sensor model of the KOMPSAT-1(Korean Multi-Purpose Satellite) and aerial photography. The KOMPSAT-1 collects 510~730 nm panchromatic imagery with a ground sample distance (GSD) of 6.6 m and a swath width of 17 km by pushbroom scanning. The least square solution was used to estimate the RPC. In addition, data normalization and regularization were applied to improve the accuracy and minimize noise. This study found that the RPC model is suitable for both KOMPSAT-1 and aerial photography.