# Mapping with Pleiades--End-to-End Workflow  
[PERSON]  
1 JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgessellschaft mbH, DIGITAL, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation, 8010 Graz, Austria 12 Institute of Geodesy, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria 22 Institute of Computer Graphics and Vision, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria 22 Institute of Geodesy, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria 22 Institute of Geodes  
multi-spectral ortho-rectified images. All this information can be extracted from stereo or multi-view satellite imagery. Therefore, this work focuses on the generation of those 3D mapping products on the example of images gathered from the Pleiades satellite constellation. Scientifically, this work is based upon our previous publications [19; 20; 21] which are extended, refined and completed. The central contributions of this work can be summarized as follows:  
* An end-to-end workflow for mapping with satellite data is defined, especially tailored to the Pleiades sensors. Each component of this workflow is reviewed in detail.
* The specific implementation is described, where many insights are presented which often focus on efficient implementation yielding speed-up.
* Many extensions of the classical stereo processing chain are explained, including epipolar rectification, stereo matching details, fusion methods and also assessment details.
* A novel, robust and fast DSM to DTM conversion algorithm is presented that is very beneficial for various applications.
* For the first time in remote sensing, a multiple view geometry data set is processed comprising six Pleiades images that form 15 stereo pairs in along and across track direction. Note that other multiple view combinations were already processed in, for example, References [22; 23; 24; 25].
* A comprehensive assessment is performed based on 24 Pleiades images gathered with a variety of acquired scenarios and distributed over the globe. In particular, assessments of the accuracy of 2D and 3D geo-location, such as DSMs and DTMs, are performed. Additional, results on stereo, tri-stereo and multi-view data sets are analyzed in detail.
* Directions of future research are pointed out, such as finding optimized matching cost functions or automatic ground control points (GCP) transfer from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to optical images which will then complement the whole workflow.  
The special interest in using Pleiades data to generate those needed mapping products comes from the fact that this sensor can acquire tri-stereo panchromatic images in one single over flight (single pass along track stereo capacity) in high spatial resolution. In addition, several works show that it is possible to derive highly accurate DSMs from such stereo or tri-stereo images [19; 21; 26; 27]. Note, that all presented and proposed methodologies in this work are not limited to this specific Pleiades satellites but can be directly applied to any satellite imagery with rational polynomial coefficient based sensor models. For instance, for Ikonos, Spot-7, Spot-8, WorldView-3, WorldView-4 and also the upcoming Pleiades-Neo constellation. The presented methods are all implemented within the commercial software package _Remote Sensing Software Graz (RSG)_ ([[http://www.remotesensing.at/en/remote-sensing-software.html](http://www.remotesensing.at/en/remote-sensing-software.html)]([http://www.remotesensing.at/en/remote-sensing-software.html](http://www.remotesensing.at/en/remote-sensing-software.html))) and thus are available for the remote sensing community.