IEEE P1937.11

New IEEE Standard - Active - Draft. The acquisition, organization, storage, and display of data from any earth observation system are all in polar coordinates (longitude and latitude), but at present there is no standard on polar coordinate based photogrammetric processing and analysis of this data especially for Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). As we know, images are represented and processed in Euclidean coordinates. This is despite the fact that the photogrammetric process requires projective geometry rather than Euclidean geometry. Projective geometry introduces the concept of a projection center – referred to as a pole – that is well-defined in polar coordinate system. Hence, the use of polar coordinates in photogrammetry (polar coordinate photogrammetry) fits better for geometric operations and avoids error propagation during coordinate conversions during acquisition, processing, management, and storage. At present there is no technical standard on the use of polar photogrammetry especially for imagery acquired by UAS; the remote sensing technicians lack unified technical specifications when operating with UAS images in polar coordinates which often reduces the quality of photogrammetric products. Generating the technical specifications for polar coordinate photogrammetry will ensure data quality, improve photogrammetric process efficiency, and offer better services for remote sensing applications. More importantly, the establishment of polar coordinate photogrammetry standard will unify the whole procedures of digital earth models from acquisition to processing and then to organization and storage in polar coordinate system.