A method for geo-referencing an area by means of an imaging optronics system comprising a detector having an optical axis, means for positioning this detector, means for measuring the attitude of the detector, a range finder, means of acquiring the image coordinates of the range-found points, and a processing unit linked to the aforementioned elements, which comprises a step of acquiring M successive images by means of the detector, the imaged area being distributed between these M images, a step of acquiring the positioning x m, y m, z m of the detector at the times of acquisition of the M images with the positioning means, a step of measuring the attitude φ m, θ m, ψ m of the detector at the times of acquisition of the M images with the measuring means for measuring the attitude of the detector, characterized in that the range finder is coordinated with the optical axis of the detector, in that the M images of the area are acquired in succession and present areas of overlap two by two, and in that it further comprises the steps: o) of extracting homologous primitives in the areas of overlap of these M images and a step of mapping the images two by two on the basis of these homologous primitives, i) of measuring, with the range finder, P distances d 1, d 2,..., d P between the system and P points of the area, called range-found points, with P ≥ 3 and M>P, these range-found points being distributed in K of said images mapped two by two with 1 ≤ K ≤ M, with P=K, that is to say with a single range-found point in each of the K images, ii) of acquiring, with the means of acquiring the image coordinates of the range-found points, the coordinates in these K images mapped two by two of the points called image points (p 1, q 1), (p 2, q 2),..., (p P, q P) corresponding to the P range-found points, iii) and a step of estimating, with the processing unit, the parameters of exposure conditions x e, y e, z e, φ e, θ e, ψ e of the detector corresponding to the M images as a function of positionings, of attitudes, of distances and of coordinates of the image points, in order to reduce the errors on the parameters x m, y m, z m, φ m, θ m, ψ m of the detector for each of the M images. o) of extracting homologous primitives in the areas of overlap of these M images and a step of mapping the images two by two on the basis of these homologous primitives, i) of measuring, with the range finder, P distances d 1, d 2,..., d P between the system and P points of the area, called range-found points, with P ≥ 3 and M>P, these range-found points being distributed in K of said images mapped two by two with 1 ≤ K ≤ M, with P=K, that is to say with a single range-found point in each of the K images, ii) of acquiring, with the means of acquiring the image coordinates of the range-found points, the coordinates in these K images mapped two by two of the points called image points (p 1, q 1), (p 2, q 2),..., (p P, q P) corresponding to the P range-found points, iii) and a step of estimating, with the processing unit, the parameters of exposure conditions x e, y e, z e, φ e, θ e, ψ e of the detector corresponding to the M images as a function of positionings, of attitudes, of distances and of coordinates of the image points, in order to reduce the errors on the parameters x m, y m, z m, φ m, θ m, ψ m of the detector for each of the M images. i) of measuring, with the range finder, P distances d 1, d 2,..., d P between the system and P points of the area, called range-found points, with P ≥ 3 and M>P, these range-found points being distributed in K of said images mapped two by two with 1 ≤ K ≤ M, with P=K, that is to say with a single range-found point in each of the K images, ii) of acquiring, with the means of acquiring the image coordinates of the range-found points, the coordinates in these K images mapped two by two of the points called image points (p 1, q 1), (p 2, q 2),..., (p P, q P) corresponding to the P range-found points, iii) and a step of estimating, with the processing unit, the parameters of exposure conditions x e, y e, z e, φ e, θ e, ψ e of the detector corresponding to the M images as a function of positionings, of attitudes, of distances and of coordinates of the image points, in order to reduce the errors on the parameters x m, y m, z m, φ m, θ m, ψ m of the detector for each of the M images.