An Accurate Calculation of the Atmospheric Refraction Error of Optical Remote Sensing Images Based on the Fine-Layered Light Vector Method

Atmospheric refraction is an important factor that affects the positioning accuracy of optical high-resolution satellite imaging. Current calculation methods do not consider regional change characteristics in the atmosphere; the atmospheric division model is rough and does not conform to reality. This article studies atmospheric refraction in optical remote sensing satellite observations, provides a formula for calculating the strict refraction of a multilayer atmosphere, and shows a new method for calculating atmospheric refraction error. We use a ray-tracing method to calculate the light propagation path in the atmosphere and continuously layer the atmosphere according to the height difference of 100 m. Different from general calculation methods, we prove that a regional atmospheric model can calculate the atmospheric refraction index more accurately than using the empirical model. As the off-nadir angle gradually increases, the calculation results in this article are better than the current commonly used methods. We use WorldView-2 images of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau region in China for the experiments. When the off-nadir angle is less than 32°, the positioning accuracy improves by 6–47%. Compared with the standard atmospheric model, the regional atmospheric model improves positioning accuracy by 2–18%. This method reflects the continuous variation in the atmospheric refractive index with the vertical distribution of the atmosphere and amended regional meteorological conditions. Model errors caused by overly simple atmospheric division are avoided, andthe positioning accuracy of optical remote sensing images is increased.