The Airborne High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC-A) as a Tool for High Mountain Cartography

Abstract

The airborne High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC-A) is a multiple line scanner which simultaneously acquires stereo and colour information with absolute spatial accuracy in the decimetre range. The multiple stereo principle applied ist particularly well suited for otaining precise topographic and imaging data of rugged terrain as found in mountainous regions: a permanently nadir-looking stereo channel provides favourable visibility conditions and minimises the occurrence of shadow zones which affect the performance of side-looking sensor systems such as SAR. A sophisticated and fully automated photogrammetric processing system allows to dertermine topography even in areas which are problematic for image correlation techniques neede to extract height information from stereo imagery, e.g. in areas with low texture information like snow. In order to supplement existing monitoring techniques for snow and ice-covered regions, HRSC-A was used in a pilot study to map an area of the Hohe Tauern mountain range in Austria enclosing some of the most intensively analysed glaciers in the Alps. The results are of outstanding quality and suggest the future application of HRSC-A for the remote sensing of snow and ice, particularly in the context of climate-related studies.