INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS AND APPLICATIONS OF 
JAPANESE ERS-1 STEREOSCOPIC IMAGES. 
Nobuhiko Mori: NEC Corporation. 
Hidetoshi Takaoka: Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. 
Kunishige Tonoike, Jiro Komai: Earth Resources 
Satellite Data Analysis Center. 
Shunji Murai: University of Tokyo. 
NEC Corp. (space, ground system), 4035, Ikebe-cho, 
Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226 Japan. 
Commission 1, WG 1 
Abstract 
A remote sensing satellite named Japanese Earth Resources 
Satellite-1 (JERS-1) is scheduled to be launched in 1992 in 
Japan. The satellite will be able to take stereoscopic images 
continuously by two linear array sensors. In this work, we 
developed a system to make JERS-1 simulation stereoscopic 
images by computer, and then using this system, we produced 
stereoscopic images from a Large Format Camera (LFC) photograph 
taken from the space shuttle. We investigated the quality and 
the usefulness of the JERS-1 stereoscopic images using these 
simulation images. The result of this work is that we can get 
high quality stereoscopic vision to explore earth resources 
from JERS-1 stereoscopic images which have about 20 m ground 
resolution and 0.3 base-to-height ratio. 
1. Introduction 
  
Recently stereoscopic images taken from satellites are drawing 
the attention of the world. SPOT-1, which was launched in 
1986, was essentially the first satellite to have the function 
Of stereoscopic viewing and many investigations about SPOT 
stereoscopic images are being executed now. Japan is planning 
to launch another stereoscopic viewing satellite, JERS-1, in 
1992. The main difference between SPOT-1 and JERS-1 is that 
SPOT-1 takes stereoscopic images in two different orbits using 
a side-looking image sensor but JERS-1 takes them in the same 
orbit using nadir and forward looking image sensors. This 
difference in the image-taking method causes some differences 
in image features. So it is necessary to investigate the 
feature of JERS-1 stereoscopic images in detail. 
The projection method of satellite images is different from 
photographic images, the satellite image is a cylindrical 
projection but the photographic is a central. projection. 
Therefore, there are many new problems to be resolved in 
satellite stereoscopic images. It is the main purpose of this 
work to make simulation stereoscopic images to investigate the 
features and the quality of JERS-1 stereoscopic images. 
Another purpose of this work is to evaluate some parameters of 
JERS-1 stereoscopic viewing to confirm the adequacy of the 
design. The third purpose of this work is to investigate the 
usefulness of JERS-1 stereoscopic images to develop their 
application fields. 
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