Abstract: A computationally efficient method, system and programmed medium according to the present invention creates highly accurate maps of celestial bodies, spanning multiple UTM zones given sparse control points on the celestial body surface without requiring the existence or synthesis of a mathematical model of the satellite image sensor. The present invention provides an improved method and system for producing orthorectification coefficients needed to produce highly accurate maps of the surface of celestial bodies that span multiple UTM zones.

Abstract: The present invention involves a system and method for processing information from high resolution data from maps, aerial photographs and other spatial data with low resolution data from limitation in order to accurately identify changes in the studied areas. The system and method relies upon a vectorized database which has been classified according to topographical features. Change is defined by a Z-statistic. The Z-statistic is calculated in a two-pass cross-correlation technique when pixel brightnesses are compared to a mean brightness for the typical topographical class and to a standard deviation for that class. The normalized difference values are accumulated across different bands, are scaled and then compared to a threshold which defines high, medium and low change values. A map is automatically produced illustrating areas of significant change.