DSM Quality Assessment of GF-7 Satellite

Abstract

The Gaofen-7 (GF-7) satellite was launched on November 3, 2019. It can achieve 1:10000 scale stereo mapping and serve the application needs of basic surveying and mapping, natural resources monitoring and geographic information resource construction. These application rely on high-precision digital surface model (DSM) products as data support. Therefore, it is of great significance to analyze the quality of DSM products produced by Gaofen-7. This paper uses GF-7 optical stereo images from the regions of Zhaodong and Tianjin in China to extract DSMs. And the difference DSM is produced by subtracting the 0.5m resolution aerial reference DEM and the 30m resolution COP30 product in the same area. The quality of DSM products is evaluated by comparing and analyzing the difference DSM. The results show that when the DSM produced by the GF-7 satellite uses the aerial DEM as a reference, the elevation accuracy can reach 0.97 m in the Zhaodong area and 1.54 m in the Tianjin area, and the details of the objects are well depicted; when the COP30 product is used as a reference, the elevation positioning accuracy can reach 1.29 m in the Zhaodong area and 2.42 m in the Tianjin area, which can correctly show the overall situation of the surface objects. Among them, the elevation accuracy in the Tianjin area is relatively poor, mainly because there are many water areas and buildings in this area, and the COP30 product has data missing in this area, which affects the accuracy. In general, the quality of the DSM products generated by the GF-7 satellite is good. Through effective ground control and further processing, the DSM products can fully meet the needs of practical applications such as 1:10000 scale mapping.