{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,5]],"date-time":"2025-11-05T06:34:58Z","timestamp":1762324498702,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,20]],"date-time":"2019-06-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1560988800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["61771150"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["61771150"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In recent years, China has launched YaoGan-13 and GaoFen-3, high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites that can acquire global high-resolution images. The absolute positioning accuracy of such satellites is important for mapping areas without ground reference points and for automated processing. However, satellites without geometric calibration have poor absolute positioning accuracy, greatly restricting their application (e.g., land resource surveys). Therefore, they cannot meet national demands for high-resolution SAR images with good geometric accuracy. Here, we propose a series of methods to improve the absolute positioning accuracy of YaoGan-13 and GaoFen-3, such as the multiple-image combined calibration strategy and geometric calibration model for a real continuously moving configuration, including consideration of atmospheric propagation delay. Using high-accuracy ground control data collected from different areas, the 2-D and 3-D absolute positioning accuracies of YaoGan-13 and GaoFen-3 were assessed after implementation of the improvement measures. Experimental results showed that, after calibration, the 2-D absolute positioning accuracy of YaoGan-13 and GaoFen-3 are improved from 43.86 m to 2.57 m and from 30.34 m to 4.29 m, respectively. In addition, the 3-D absolute positioning accuracies of YaoGan-13 in plane and elevation are 3.21 m and 2.22 m, respectively. Improving the absolute positioning accuracy of these satellites could broaden the scope of their potential applications in the future.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11121465","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,20]],"date-time":"2019-06-20T10:49:59Z","timestamp":1561027799000},"page":"1465","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":19,"title":["Improvement and Assessment of the Absolute Positioning Accuracy of Chinese High-Resolution SAR Satellites"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Mingjun","family":"Deng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411000, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3987-5336","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Guo","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China"}]},{"given":"Chenglin","family":"Cai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Information Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411000, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6310-2977","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kai","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5416-7226","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ruishan","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Geomatics, Liaoning Technical University, Fuxin 123000, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4547-5507","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fengchen","family":"Guo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Suo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tianjin Institute of Surveying and Mapping, Tianjin 300000, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101","DOI":"10.1080\/2150704X.2017.1395962","article-title":"Assessment of the geolocation accuracy of YG-13A high-resolution SAR data","volume":"9","author":"Deng","year":"2018","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Lett."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Deng, M., Zhang, G., Zhao, R., Li, S., and Li, J. (2017). Improvement of Gaofen-3 Absolute Positioning Accuracy Based on Cross-Calibration. Sensors, 17.","DOI":"10.3390\/s17122903"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Schubert, A., Miranda, N., Geudtner, D., and Small, D. (2017). Sentinel-1A\/B Combined Product Geolocation Accuracy. Remote Sens., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9060607"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"971","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2009.2037315","article-title":"Assessment of the Stereo-Radargrammetric Mapping Potential of TerraSAR-X Multibeam Spotlight Data","volume":"48","author":"Raggam","year":"2010","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Zheng, N., Jiang, X., and Lan, X. (2006). Study on the Geolocation Algorithm of Space-Borne SAR Image. Advances in Machine Vision, Image Processing, and Pattern Analysis, Springer. Lecture Notes in Computer Science."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.1111\/phor.12179","article-title":"Geometric Accuracy Evaluation of YG-18 Satellite Imagery Based on RFM","volume":"32","author":"Zhao","year":"2017","journal-title":"Photogramm. Rec."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Hua, J., and Zhang, G. (2011, January 24\u201329). Research on the methods of inner calibration of spaceborne SAR. Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), Vancouver, BC, Canada."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"842","DOI":"10.1109\/36.917909","article-title":"Geometric calibration of ERS satellite SAR images","volume":"39","author":"Mohr","year":"2001","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Small, D., Rosich, B., Meier, E., and N\u00fcesch, D. (2004, January 27\u201328). Geometric calibration and validation of ASAR imagery. Proceedings of the CEOS SAR Workshop 2004, Ulm, Germany."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cote, S., Srivastava, S., Muir, S., Hawkins, R., and Lukowski, T. (2009, January 12\u201317). RADARSAT-1 AND-2 government calibration activities. Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), Cape Town, South Africa.","DOI":"10.1109\/IGARSS.2009.5418241"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3915","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2009.2023909","article-title":"PALSAR Radiometric and Geometric Calibration","volume":"47","author":"Shimada","year":"2009","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_12","first-page":"96420D","article-title":"On the geolocation accuracy of COSMO-SkyMed products","volume":"Volume 9642","author":"Nitti","year":"2015","journal-title":"Proceedings of the SAR Image Analysis, Modeling, and Techniques XV"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"677","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2009.2035308","article-title":"Final TerraSAR-X Calibration Results Based on Novel Efficient Methods","volume":"48","author":"Schwerdt","year":"2010","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Schwerdt, M., Schrank, D., Bachmann, M., Gonzalez, J.H., D\u00f6ring, B.J., Tous-Ramon, N., and Antony, J.W. (2012). Calibration of the TerraSAR-X and the TanDEM-X satellite for the TerraSAR-X mission. Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar, VDE."},{"key":"ref_15","first-page":"994","article-title":"Independent verification of the Sentinel-1A system calibration","volume":"9","author":"Schwerdt","year":"2014","journal-title":"Geosci. Remote Sens. Symp."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Schwerdt, M., Schmidt, K., Tous Ramon, N., Klenk, P., Yague-Martinez, N., Prats-Iraola, P., Zink, M., and Geudtner, D. (2017). Independent System Calibration of Sentinel-1B. Remote Sens., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9060511"},{"key":"ref_17","first-page":"41","article-title":"Precise orbit determination for LEO satellites using single-frequency GPS observations","volume":"33","author":"Guo","year":"2013","journal-title":"Chin. Space Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"661","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2010.2060264","article-title":"Imaging Geodesy\u2014Toward Centimeter-Level Ranging Accuracy with TerraSAR-X","volume":"49","author":"Eineder","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"11","article-title":"Preliminary exploration of systematic geolocation accuracy of GF-3 SAR satellite system","volume":"6","author":"Ding","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Radars"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"751","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2009.2036252","article-title":"Influence of Atmospheric Path Delay on the Absolute Geolocation Accuracy of TerraSAR-X High-Resolution Products","volume":"48","author":"Schubert","year":"2010","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8479","DOI":"10.3390\/s8128479","article-title":"Estimation of Atmospheric Path Delays in TerraSAR-X Data using Models vs. Measurements","volume":"8","author":"Jehle","year":"2008","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"985","DOI":"10.1080\/2150704X.2016.1199082","article-title":"A method for detecting the atmospheric refraction effect using satellite remote sensing","volume":"7","author":"Li","year":"2016","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Lett."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9431","DOI":"10.3390\/rs70709431","article-title":"Sentinel-1A Product Geolocation Accuracy: Commissioning Phase Results","volume":"7","author":"Schubert","year":"2015","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_24","first-page":"373","article-title":"Application of the atmospheric delay correction model in YG-13A range calibration","volume":"22","author":"Deng","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"640","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2017.1388938","article-title":"Planar block adjustment and orthorectification of Chinese spaceborne SAR YG-5 imagery based on RPC","volume":"39","author":"Wang","year":"2018","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"124","DOI":"10.1785\/0220140126","article-title":"The February 2014 Cephalonia Earthquake (Greece): 3D Deformation Field and Source Modeling from Multiple SAR Techniques","volume":"86","author":"Papoutsis","year":"2015","journal-title":"Seismol. Res. Lett."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/11\/12\/1465\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T12:59:59Z","timestamp":1760187599000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/11\/12\/1465"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,20]]},"references-count":26,"journal-issue":{"issue":"12","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,6]]}},"alternative-id":["rs11121465"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs11121465","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2072-4292"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,20]]}}}