Abstract. The quality of cartographic products, obtained on base of aerial images, depends on their quality. The image‘s quality can be defined in terms of measurement characteristics and in it’s visual properties. The object of the paper is an aerial image’s quality, concerning its visual perception. The process of topographic aerial images quality assessing is currently not regulated, therefore, this problem becomes particularly relevant today. The article is devoted to development the quality criteria system for aerial images, obtained for mapping purposes, and definition the requirements for them. The analysis of factors affecting the quality of aerial images is carried out, they include natural conditions, technical and technological parameters of aerial surveying and images post-processing. The main imperfections of image quality, appearing as a result of these factors influence are determined – blurring, high level of random image noise, haze, color imbalance, loss of information in shadows and illumination. Methods of identifying these imperfections and assessing their influence on aerial images quality are shown.