External quality control of Pléiades orthoimagery : part II : geometric testing and validation of a Pléiades-1B orthoproduct covering Maussane test site

The goal of the current report is to provide with a final statement on the geometric capabilities of Pléiades sensors through the Quality Control (QC) of Pléiades-1B orthocorrected imagery following the recent validation of Pléiades-1A. Namely, the validation process aims at measuring the influence of different factors on the geometric accuracy of Pléiades-1B orthoimagery. For that purpose, a light benchmarking is implemented as: a single far-from-nadir image datasetis evaluated using 2 different software suites only, and with 2 different input GCP configurations, hence meaning that less than 10 products are tested herein. Together with the results of Pléiades-1A validation, it is then asserted that the VHR prime sensor requirement derived from the ASPRS 1:10.000 scale map accuracy standards is fulfilled, namely the following condition is met: the planimetric accuracy of the Pléiades orthoimagery, expressed as the RMSE measured on Check Points in both Easting and Northing directions, is below the 2.5m scale geometric specification. Therefore, Pléiades orthoimagery is formally introduced into the 2013 "Control with Remote Sensing" Programme.