Recent advances in spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution of civil land remote sensing satellite data are presenting new opportunities for image mapping applications. The U.S. Geological Survey's experimental satellite image mapping program is evolving toward larger scale image map products with increased information content as a result of improved image processing techniques and increased resolution. Thematic mapper data are being used to produce experimental image maps at 1:100,000 scale that meet established U.S. and European map accuracy standards. Availability of high quality, cloud-free, 30-meter ground resolution multispectral data from the Landsat thematic mapper sensor, along with 10-meter ground resolution panchromatic and 20-meter ground resolution multispectral data from the recently launched French SPOT satellite, present new cartographic and image processing challenges.

The need to fully exploit these higher resolution data increases the complexity of processing the images into large-scale image maps. The removal of radiometric artifacts and noise prior to geometric correction can be accomplished by using a variety of image processing filters and transforms. Sensor modeling and image restoration techniques allow maximum retention of spatial and radiometric information. An optimum combination of spectral information and spatial resolution can be obtained by merging different sensor types. These processing techniques are discussed and examples are presented.