A two-step rectification algorithm for airborne linear images with POS data

Rectification for airborne linear images is an indispensable preprocessing step. This paper presents in detail a two-step rectification algorithm. The first step is to establish the model of direct georeference position using the data provided by the Positioning and Orientation System (POS) and obtain the mathematical relationships between the image points and ground reference points. The second step is to apply polynomial distortion model and Bilinear Interpolation to get the final precise rectified images. In this step, a reference image is required and some ground control points (GCPs) are selected. Experiments showed that the final rectified images are satisfactory, and that our two-step rectification algorithm is very effective.