Multisource and Multitemporal Data Fusion in Remote Sensing

The sharp and recent increase in the availability of data captured by different sensors combined with their considerably heterogeneous natures poses a serious challenge for the effective and efficient processing of remotely sensed data. Such an increase in remote sensing and ancillary datasets, however, opens up the possibility of utilizing multimodal datasets in a joint manner to further improve the performance of the processing approaches with respect to the application at hand. Multisource data fusion has, therefore, received enormous attention from researchers worldwide for a wide variety of applications. Moreover, thanks to the revisit capability of several spaceborne sensors, the integration of the temporal information with the spatial and/or spectral/backscattering information of the remotely sensed data is possible and helps to move from a representation of 2D/3D data to 4D data structures, where the time variable adds new information as well as challenges for the information extraction algorithms. There are a huge number of research works dedicated to multisource and multitemporal data fusion, but the methods for the fusion of different modalities have expanded in different paths according to each research community. This paper brings together the advances of multisource and multitemporal data fusion approaches with respect to different research communities and provides a thorough and discipline-specific starting point for researchers at different levels (i.e., students, researchers, and senior researchers) willing to conduct novel investigations on this challenging topic by supplying sufficient detail and references

HyperSpectral classification with adaptively weighted L1-norm regularization and spatial postprocessing

Sparse regression methods have been proven effective in a wide range of signal processing problems such as image compression, speech coding, channel equalization, linear regression and classification. In this paper a new convex method of hyperspectral image classification is developed based on the sparse unmixing algorithm SUnSAL for which a pixel adaptive L1-norm regularization term is introduced. To further enhance class separability, the algorithm is kernelized using an RBF kernel and the final results are improved by a combination of spatial pre and post-processing operations. It is shown that the proposed method is competitive with state of the art algorithms such as SVM-CK, KSOMP-CK and KSSP-CK.Comment: v3: 11 pages, 2 Figures, 10 Tables. Updated the results for the Indian Pines image; added the results for the Pavia University imag

Hyperspectral Image Restoration via Total Variation Regularized Low-rank Tensor Decomposition

Hyperspectral images (HSIs) are often corrupted by a mixture of several types of noise during the acquisition process, e.g., Gaussian noise, impulse noise, dead lines, stripes, and many others. Such complex noise could degrade the quality of the acquired HSIs, limiting the precision of the subsequent processing. In this paper, we present a novel tensor-based HSI restoration approach by fully identifying the intrinsic structures of the clean HSI part and the mixed noise part respectively. Specifically, for the clean HSI part, we use tensor Tucker decomposition to describe the global correlation among all bands, and an anisotropic spatial-spectral total variation (SSTV) regularization to characterize the piecewise smooth structure in both spatial and spectral domains. For the mixed noise part, we adopt the $\ell_1$ norm regularization to detect the sparse noise, including stripes, impulse noise, and dead pixels. Despite that TV regulariztion has the ability of removing Gaussian noise, the Frobenius norm term is further used to model heavy Gaussian noise for some real-world scenarios. Then, we develop an efficient algorithm for solving the resulting optimization problem by using the augmented Lagrange multiplier (ALM) method. Finally, extensive experiments on simulated and real-world noise HSIs are carried out to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over the existing state-of-the-art ones.Comment: 15 pages, 20 figure

Kronecker PCA Based Robust SAR STAP

In this work the detection of moving targets in multiantenna SAR is considered. As a high resolution radar imaging modality, SAR detects and identifies stationary targets very well, giving it an advantage over classical GMTI radars. Moving target detection is more challenging due to the "burying" of moving targets in the clutter and is often achieved using space-time adaptive processing (STAP) (based on learning filters from the spatio-temporal clutter covariance) to remove the stationary clutter and enhance the moving targets. In this work, it is noted that in addition to the oft noted low rank structure, the clutter covariance is also naturally in the form of a space vs time Kronecker product with low rank factors. A low-rank KronPCA covariance estimation algorithm is proposed to exploit this structure, and a separable clutter cancelation filter based on the Kronecker covariance estimate is proposed. Together, these provide orders of magnitude reduction in the number of training samples required, as well as improved robustness to corruption of the training data, e.g. due to outliers and moving targets. Theoretical properties of the proposed estimation algorithm are derived and the significant reductions in training complexity are established under the spherically invariant random vector model (SIRV). Finally, an extension of this approach incorporating multipass data (change detection) is presented. Simulation results and experiments using the real Gotcha SAR GMTI challenge dataset are presented that confirm the advantages of our approach relative to existing techniques.Comment: Tech report. Shorter version submitted to IEEE AE

Dictionary Learning for Adaptive GPR Landmine Classification

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) target detection and classification is a challenging task. Here, we consider online dictionary learning (DL) methods to obtain sparse representations (SR) of the GPR data to enhance feature extraction for target classification via support vector machines. Online methods are preferred because traditional batch DL like K-SVD is not scalable to high-dimensional training sets and infeasible for real-time operation. We also develop Drop-Off MINi-batch Online Dictionary Learning (DOMINODL) which exploits the fact that a lot of the training data may be correlated. The DOMINODL algorithm iteratively considers elements of the training set in small batches and drops off samples which become less relevant. For the case of abandoned anti-personnel landmines classification, we compare the performance of K-SVD with three online algorithms: classical Online Dictionary Learning, its correlation-based variant, and DOMINODL. Our experiments with real data from L-band GPR show that online DL methods reduce learning time by 36-93% and increase mine detection by 4-28% over K-SVD. Our DOMINODL is the fastest and retains similar classification performance as the other two online DL approaches. We use a Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test distance and the Dvoretzky-Kiefer-Wolfowitz inequality for the selection of DL input parameters leading to enhanced classification results. To further compare with state-of-the-art classification approaches, we evaluate a convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier which performs worse than the proposed approach. Moreover, when the acquired samples are randomly reduced by 25%, 50% and 75%, sparse decomposition based classification with DL remains robust while the CNN accuracy is drastically compromised.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 10 table

Exploiting Deep Features for Remote Sensing Image Retrieval: A Systematic Investigation

Remote sensing (RS) image retrieval is of great significant for geological information mining. Over the past two decades, a large amount of research on this task has been carried out, which mainly focuses on the following three core issues: feature extraction, similarity metric and relevance feedback. Due to the complexity and multiformity of ground objects in high-resolution remote sensing (HRRS) images, there is still room for improvement in the current retrieval approaches. In this paper, we analyze the three core issues of RS image retrieval and provide a comprehensive review on existing methods. Furthermore, for the goal to advance the state-of-the-art in HRRS image retrieval, we focus on the feature extraction issue and delve how to use powerful deep representations to address this task. We conduct systematic investigation on evaluating correlative factors that may affect the performance of deep features. By optimizing each factor, we acquire remarkable retrieval results on publicly available HRRS datasets. Finally, we explain the experimental phenomenon in detail and draw conclusions according to our analysis. Our work can serve as a guiding role for the research of content-based RS image retrieval

A Survey on Object Detection in Optical Remote Sensing Images

Object detection in optical remote sensing images, being a fundamental but challenging problem in the field of aerial and satellite image analysis, plays an important role for a wide range of applications and is receiving significant attention in recent years. While enormous methods exist, a deep review of the literature concerning generic object detection is still lacking. This paper aims to provide a review of the recent progress in this field. Different from several previously published surveys that focus on a specific object class such as building and road, we concentrate on more generic object categories including, but are not limited to, road, building, tree, vehicle, ship, airport, urban-area. Covering about 270 publications we survey 1) template matching-based object detection methods, 2) knowledge-based object detection methods, 3) object-based image analysis (OBIA)-based object detection methods, 4) machine learning-based object detection methods, and 5) five publicly available datasets and three standard evaluation metrics. We also discuss the challenges of current studies and propose two promising research directions, namely deep learning-based feature representation and weakly supervised learning-based geospatial object detection. It is our hope that this survey will be beneficial for the researchers to have better understanding of this research field.Comment: This manuscript is the accepted version for ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensin

Mini-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Based Remote Sensing: Techniques, Applications, and Prospects

The past few decades have witnessed the great progress of unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) in civilian fields, especially in photogrammetry and remote sensing. In contrast with the platforms of manned aircraft and satellite, the UAV platform holds many promising characteristics: flexibility, efficiency, high-spatial/temporal resolution, low cost, easy operation, etc., which make it an effective complement to other remote-sensing platforms and a cost-effective means for remote sensing. Considering the popularity and expansion of UAV-based remote sensing in recent years, this paper provides a systematic survey on the recent advances and future prospectives of UAVs in the remote-sensing community. Specifically, the main challenges and key technologies of remote-sensing data processing based on UAVs are discussed and summarized firstly. Then, we provide an overview of the widespread applications of UAVs in remote sensing. Finally, some prospects for future work are discussed. We hope this paper will provide remote-sensing researchers an overall picture of recent UAV-based remote sensing developments and help guide the further research on this topic

Volumetric Super-Resolution of Multispectral Data

Most multispectral remote sensors (e.g. QuickBird, IKONOS, and Landsat 7 ETM+) provide low-spatial high-spectral resolution multispectral (MS) or high-spatial low-spectral resolution panchromatic (PAN) images, separately. In order to reconstruct a high-spatial/high-spectral resolution multispectral image volume, either the information in MS and PAN images are fused (i.e. pansharpening) or super-resolution reconstruction (SRR) is used with only MS images captured on different dates. Existing methods do not utilize temporal information of MS and high spatial resolution of PAN images together to improve the resolution. In this paper, we propose a multiframe SRR algorithm using pansharpened MS images, taking advantage of both temporal and spatial information available in multispectral imagery, in order to exceed spatial resolution of given PAN images. We first apply pansharpening to a set of multispectral images and their corresponding PAN images captured on different dates. Then, we use the pansharpened multispectral images as input to the proposed wavelet-based multiframe SRR method to yield full volumetric SRR. The proposed SRR method is obtained by deriving the subband relations between multitemporal MS volumes. We demonstrate the results on Landsat 7 ETM+ images comparing our method to conventional techniques.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1705.0125

Robust SAR STAP via Kronecker Decomposition

This paper proposes a spatio-temporal decomposition for the detection of moving targets in multiantenna SAR. As a high resolution radar imaging modality, SAR detects and localizes non-moving targets accurately, giving it an advantage over lower resolution GMTI radars. Moving target detection is more challenging due to target smearing and masking by clutter. Space-time adaptive processing (STAP) is often used to remove the stationary clutter and enhance the moving targets. In this work, it is shown that the performance of STAP can be improved by modeling the clutter covariance as a space vs. time Kronecker product with low rank factors. Based on this model, a low-rank Kronecker product covariance estimation algorithm is proposed, and a novel separable clutter cancelation filter based on the Kronecker covariance estimate is introduced. The proposed method provides orders of magnitude reduction in the required number of training samples, as well as improved robustness to corruption of the training data. Simulation results and experiments using the Gotcha SAR GMTI challenge dataset are presented that confirm the advantages of our approach relative to existing techniques.Comment: to appear at IEEE AES. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1604.03622, arXiv:1501.0748