In today's airborne mapping applications, there is a strong push towards higher-resolution sensors for high-end digital systems. This large-format sensor development aims to reduce the data acquisition (flight) time and cost, leading to higher productivity for the end-user. Due to the increased sensor resolution, these new systems allow higher flight altitude for the same ground sampling distance (GSD), thereby covering substantially larger swath width (distance covered across track during flight). Alternatively, at similar altitude, the system will deliver higher ground resolution. The described sensor exceeds the highest pixel count of sensors used for aerial mapping applications reported in a recent survey paper [1].
['Jan Bogaerts', 'Raf Lafaille', 'Marc Borremans', 'Jia Guo', 'Bart Ceulemans', 'Guy Meynants', 'Navid Sarhangnejad', 'Gavril Arsinte', 'Victor Statescu', 'Sonja van der Groen']
6.3 105×65mm2 391Mpixel CMOS image sensor with >78dB dynamic range for airborne mapping applications