From Pixels to Planes: Minimum Ground Sample Distance for Aircraft

TL;DR

This paper examines how ground sample distance (GSD) affects aircraft detection accuracy in satellite imagery, establishing a minimum GSD threshold to optimize detection performance and inform camera design for lightweight aerial platforms.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of GSD impact on aircraft detection, providing a threshold value to guide camera specifications in aerial imaging systems.

Findings

A GSD of at least 0.86 meters is necessary for reliable aircraft detection.

Detection accuracy decreases significantly for aircraft with wingspans shorter than 20 meters.

The study informs camera design constraints for high-altitude platforms to balance weight and detection performance.

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of ground sample distance (GSD) on the detection performance of various sized aircraft using the proprietary AllPlanes 120 dataset. The data set comprises 120 civilian, military and museum aircraft from multiple satellite/aerial sources collected over two years. Resolutions ranging from 2.4 to 0.3 meters GSD were simulated. Performance metrics were derived from a YOLOv8s model trained on down-sampled versions of zoom level 19 (0.3m GSD) imagery. The results indicate that a GSD of at least 0.86m is required to accurately detect most aircraft, particularly those with wingspans shorter than 20 meters. Due to weight constraints in high-altitude platforms, this GSD specification can inform camera design to minimize weight while maintaining detection accuracy.