Airphoto Ingest module

Name	Caption
Scene Folder	Input scene folder
Output Folder	Output folder
Build Pyramids	Builds pyramids
Overwrite Results	Overwrite existing results
Send Email	Email notification settings
Camera Calibration File	File of camera-calibration parameters
Exterior Orientation File	File of exterior-orientation parameters
EO File Format	Format of the exterior-orientation file
EO Map Units	Exterior orientation file projection
EO Elevation Reference	Exterior orientation vertical datums
EO Angular Unit	Exterior orientation file angular unit
Rotate Kappa Angle	Kappa-value rotation angle

Parameter descriptions

Scene Folder

The path and name of the folder containing scenes to ingest.

Alternatively, you can specify an MFILE as input. An MFILE is a text file with an .mfile file name extension. For more information on this type of file, see About the MFILE format.

Note: When using an MFILE as input, you must also specify a camera-calibration file and an exterior-orientation file for Camera Calibration File and Exterior Orientation File, respectively.

Output Folder

The path and name of the folder to which to write the output files in PCIDSK format.

The Airphoto Ingest module creates PCIDSK files for each aerial image imported from the scene folder.

Note: When the output folder is on another computer on your network, the orthorectified image is created temporarily in a local temporary folder, and then copied to the specified output folder. The local copy is then deleted.

This parameter is mandatory.

Build Pyramids

This check box controls whether to build image pyramids (raster overviews) for the ingested scenes.

Building pyramids improves performance in some subsequent processing steps. They can use the pyramids instead of reading all the pixels. However, building pyramids can cause the ingest job to take longer to complete. If immediately after ingestion you intend only to create orthorectified images, you need not build pyramids.

When to turn on pyramids:

View or edit the data in: CATALYST Professional Focus
Perform some tasks in: CATALYST Professional OrthoEngine
Run any of the aerial triangulation jobs:

For more information on pyramids, see the Pyramid module.

Overwrite Results

Select this check box to overwrite the existing output files, if any exist. If this check box is left clear, and an output file exists in the relevant folder, the status of the job displays a message informing you of the existence and name of the output file. The message is also written to the event log of the job.

Send Email

If necessary, you can set up CATALYST Enterprise to send an email notification on job start and job completion.

With this check box selected, an email message is sent to each address specified in the Email Addresses box after the job starts and on completion.

You can specify one or more addresses, and each must be separated by a comma or a semi-colon. The email address of the user currently logged in displays by default.

Camera Calibration File

The path and name of the file containing camera-calibration parameters for all input scenes.

CATALYST Enterprise supports the following formats:

PCI (.xml) camera-calibration file.
For more information about camera calibration, see Data structure of aerial imagery.
Pix4D (.cam) camera-calibration file.

If no value is specified for this parameter, the module reads the scene folder for a file named camera_calib.xml.

Exterior Orientation File

The path and name of the file containing the exterior-orientation (EO) parameters required for each scene.

The value you specify can be an absolute or a relative path. A relative path is relative to the scene folder.

The EO file (eo.txt) should contain, at a minimum, the ID (PhotoID), position (easting, northing, height), and orientation (omega, phi, kappa).

If no value is specified for this parameter, the Airphoto Ingest module reads the scene folder for the default eo.txt file. If this file is not found, an error message displays, and processing of the job stops.

EO File Format

The encoding method of the exterior orientation (EO) information.

CATALYST Enterprise supports the following formats for EO:

Text (with header information) in one of the following formats:
- ID X Y Z Omega Phi Kappa
- ID X Y Z Phi Omega Kappa
- PATB (patb_eo.ori)
- BINGO (itera.dat)

With the text format, ID represents the PhotoID; x, y, z represent the position (easting, northing, height); omega, phi, and kappa represent the orientation.

EO Map Units

The projection for the EO.

The standard definitions are:

UTM: Universal Transverse Mercator

MAPUNITS (Output Projection) can specify the UTM grid-zone number and row, and Earth model, as follows:
```
UTM [mm] [r] [Ennn]
```
where:
- [mm] is the two-digit zone number between 1 and 60
- [r] is the zone row: a single letter between N and X for north of the equator and between C and M for south of the equator. Zone rows A, B, Y, and Z are not supported; rows I and O do not exist.
- [Ennn] specifies the Earth model, where the model number is between 0 and 19. If no Earth model is specified, it is assumed to be E000 (Clarke 1866).
For example, if the value of the EO Map Unit parameter is specified as UTM, then with the EO Map Unit parameter, you can enter 10 U D000. This means the final map unit of the EO information is UTM 10 U D000.
SPCS: State Plane Coordinate System

The SPCS zone number and Earth model can be specified as follows:
```
SPCS [mmmm] [Ennn]
```
where:
- [mmmm] is the four-digit zone number
- [Ennn] specifies the Earth model, where the model number is between 0 and 19. If no Earth model is specified, it is assumed to be E000 (Clarke 1866).
LONG/LAT: longitude and latitude

The Earth model can be specified for LONG/LAT (and other units except PIXEL), as follows:
```
LONG/LAT [Ennn]
```
If the Earth model is not specified, it is assumed to be E000 (Clarke 1866).
EPSG: European Petroleum Survey Group code

You can specify the projection by entering an EPSG code, as defined by the OGC at epsg.org and spatialreference.org.

You specify the EPSG code using the EPSG keyword followed by an integer and separated by a colon, as shown in the following example.
```
EPSG:4326
```
Most common EPSG codes are supported.

You can also specify the label of a user-defined projection, if the projection exists in the userproj.txt file.

EO Elevation Reference

The flying height of the airphoto camera (vertical data) at the time the image was taken.

Available options are:

Mean Sea Level (default)
Ellipsoid

If the vertical data of the digital elevation model (DEM) and the flying height of the camera differ, the EGM2008 geoid model is used for the conversions during the orthorectification process.

EO Angular Unit

The angular unit of the EO angles.

Available units are:

Degrees (default)
Gradians
Radians
DMS

Rotate Kappa Angle

The angle of rotation to add to the input kappa values, in units specified by the EO Angular Unit parameter.

In some cases, the kappa values in the EO file must be rotated (for example, by 90, -90 or 180 degrees). You apply the correction by specifying the angle of rotation.

Details

General job details

Preprocessing requirements

Before running this module, the following requirements must be met to ensure the job processes successfully and produces accurate results:

Exterior orientation

The minimum EO information required is the photo ID (ID), the exposure position (x, y, z), and the orientation of the exposure platform (omega, phi, kappa).

The EO information must be in a format suitable for reading by PCI technology. It must be in one of several formats in a text file, as described in Data structure of aerial imagery, and stored in the scene folder with the file name eo.txt.

The EO information must be refined previously with a rigorous aerial triangulation. By doing so, it is assumed that the EO information is as accurate as required and, therefore, collection of neither ground control points (GCP) nor tie points (TP) is necessary.

For more information on EO, see Data structure of aerial imagery.

Camera calibration
Camera-calibration information must be known for the camera in question. At a minimum, the following parameters must be known:
- Focal length, f
- Chip size (width, height) in mm
Camera-calibration information must be stored in an XML file conforming to the PCI format, and have the file name camera_calib.xml; this file must be stored in the scene folder.

For more detailed information about camera-calibration parameters and format, see Data structure of aerial imagery.

Data structure

Data must be organized in the structure outlined in Data structure of aerial imagery.

Scene folder

The scene folder contains images from the same camera. This implies that the scene folder does not contain a mixture of RGB and PAN data, for example.

Format of ingested data

Data being ingested must be in TIFF (.tif), JPEG 2000 (.jp2), JPEG (.jpg), or PIX format (.pix).

Module details

The Airphoto Ingest module imports aerial imagery from a frame-based airborne sensor into CATALYST Enterprise for processing. With this module, you import the aerial imagery in PCIDSK format and develop the airphoto math model with auxiliary information you supply, such as exterior-orientation (position and orientation) and interior-orientation (camera calibration) parameters. Any scene without an exterior orientation will not be processed.

With aerial imagery, you must run this module prior to running any other CATALYST Enterprise module. Although it is intended that this module be run on UltraCAM imagery, you can use any airborne, frame-based sensor in TIFF format.

Restriction: When running this module on a Linux operating system, do not use circular symbolic links, because this will cause the job to loop continuously. For example, when you ingest the contents of folder /abc, make sure the following does not exist:

/abc -> /def
/def -> /xyz
/xyz -> /abc

Job results

For each raw scene found in the specified scene folder, the Airphoto Ingest module creates a PCIDSK file in the specified output folder using a file name generated automatically. The output files follow a naming convention based on the input scene ID, the current state of the image product, and the image type: SceneID_RAW_MS.pix or SceneID_RAW_PAN.pix.

Each output file also contains an airphoto math-model segment for the ingested image.

Sample input files

07028163.tif
07028164.tif

Sample output files

07028163_RAW_MS.pix
07028164_RAW_MS.pix

Airphoto Ingest module

Description

Parameters

Parameter descriptions

Details