ASPRS is in the process of developing guidelines for the airborne in situ metric calibration of vertically oriented digital and film-based frame type cameras. This effort is being undertaken with involvement of private state and federal representation from within the ASPRS membership.

At the 2011 ASPRS Annual Conference in Milwaukee the Primary Data Acquisition Division (PDAD) formed an ad hoc committee to address metric calibration of aerial cameras. The ad hoc committee led by Dean Merchant has prepared a guideline titled (DRAFT) AERIAL CAMERA IN SITU METRIC CALIBRATION GUIDELINES**.  This committee is one of several activities under the Image Quality Committee led by Greg Stensaas at USGS.

This guideline focuses on in situ metric calibrations and is not intended to encompass laboratory or other methods of calibration. Other guidelines may be produced for these other approaches.  In situ metric calibration is being performed worldwide and in some cases is used as the primary form of calibration.  Dean and the committee have gone through numerous cycles of editing and updating this guideline.  Some recent comments from the 2012 Sacramento ASPRS Annual Conference meeting were included.

We are now requesting input for this document beyond the committee from both PDAD and Photogrammetric Application Division (PAD) members.  The comments will be collected and addressed and a summary of comments and disposition of them will be made available at request at a future date.

Please download the draft AERIAL CAMERA IN SITU METRIC CALIBRATION GUIDELINES document (Word doc format) and provide comments to the committee at CalibrationReview@asprs.org. Comments may be inserted directly into the document with “Track Changes” or you may summarize the comments by referring to specific line numbers in your communication.

All comments will be adjudicated by the committee incorporated modified or rejected and presented in documentation to the ASPRS Board as part of the adoption procedure.  Please submit your comments no later than Friday June 1 2012.

**UPDATE: October 15th 2012 version of the guidelines can be found HERE.