Comparison of four UAV georeferencing methods for environmental monitoring purposes focusing on the combined use with airborne and satellite remote sensing platforms

This work is aimed at the environmental remote sensing community that uses UAV optical frame imagery in combination with airborne and satellite data. Taking into account the economic costs involved and the time investment, we evaluated the fit-for-purpose accuracy of four positioning methods of UAV-acquired imagery: 1) direct georeferencing using the onboard raw GNSS (GNSSNAV) data, 2) direct georeferencing using Post-Processed Kinematic single-frequency carrier-phase without in situ ground support (PPK1), 3) direct georeferencing using Post-Processed Kinematic double-frequency carrier-phase GNSS data with in situ ground support (PPK2), and 4) indirect georeferencing using Ground Control Points (GCP). We tested a multispectral sensor and an RGB sensor, onboard multicopter platforms. Orthophotomosaics at