Towards an intercomparison of automated registration algorithms for multiple source remote sensing data

The first step in the integration of multiple data is registration, either relative image-to-image registration or absolute geo-registration, to a map or a fixed coordinate system. As the need for automating registration techniques is recognized, we feel that there is a need to survey all the registration methods which may be applicable to Earth and space science problems and to evaluate their performances on a large variety of existing remote sensing data as well as on simulated data of soon-to-be-flown instruments. In this paper we will describe: 1) the operational toolbox which we are developing and which will consist in some of the most important registration techniques; and 2) the quantitative intercomparison of the different methods, which will allow a user to select the desired registration technique based on this evaluation and the visualization of the registration results.