PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION INTO THE GEOMETRIC CALIBRATION OF THE MICASENSE REDEDGE-M MULTISPECTRAL CAMERA

Abstract

Multispectral cameras, in the past the prerogative of Remote Sensing (RS) applications via satellites and manned aircraft, are becoming increasingly used in photogrammetric applications. Moreover, the ubiquitous use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has created a need for the miniaturisation of sensors, which has contributed to the availability of a wide range of relatively low-cost and lightweight cameras. Therefore, small multispectral cameras mounted on UAVs provide an effective and low-cost solution when it comes to acquiring airborne radiometric data.With the growing interest for such sensors to perform photogrammetric tasks, camera calibration remains an essential step in order to obtain reliable and geometrically accurate information.This paper will investigate the camera calibration parameters between the five bands of the MicaSense RedEdge-M sensor from laboratory trials. The results of the camera calibration will be obtained from the use, primarily, of Australis software and a calibration frame within the Nottingham Geospatial Institute. The variations of the parameters demonstrate the need for distortion correction separately within each band before using the images for photogrammetry.