Stereo Processing of HRSC Mars Express Images by Semi-Global Matching

Abstract

The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) is used on-board the Mars Express
probe for imaging the Martian surface from orbit. Furthermore, the DLR employs
an airborne version HRSC-AX for capturing earth's landscape and cities. The
challenge of creating accurate elevation models of terrestrial scenes, which
include buildings with sharp boundaries, has lead to the Semi-Global Matching
(SGM) method at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics of DLR. The strength
of SGM is the accurate, pixelwise matching at full image resolution. The
efficiency of the approach allows the processing of huge areas on a processing
cluster. The success has lead to the question, whether processing of Martian
data yields equally good results. This paper describes the used HRSC projection
model, SGM based stereo matching, and the creation of elevation models and true
ortho images. Also, specific adaptations for processing Martian HRSC data are
discussed. The method has been tested on 4 orbits and compared to MOLA data.
The results suggest that the method is equally suited for terrestrial and
Martian HRSC data.

Reference

Heiko Hirschmüller, Helmut Mayer, G. Neukum and the HRSC-CoI Team (2006), Stereo Processing of HRSC Mars Express Images by Semi-Global Matching, International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XXXVI, Part 4, 27-30 September 2006, Goa, India.