Jonathan Cheung-Wai Chan

Fully Automatic Subpixel Image Registration of Multiangle CHRIS/Proba Data

Subpixel image registration is the key to successful image fusion and superresolution enhancement of multiangle satellite data. Multiangle image registration poses two main challenges: 1) Images captured at large view angles are susceptible to resolution change and blurring, and 2) local geometric distortion caused by topographic effects and/or platform instability may be important. In this paper, we propose a two-step nonrigid automatic registration scheme for multiangle satellite images. In the first step, control points (CPs) are selected in a preregistration process based on the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT). However, the number of CPs obtained in this first step may be too few and/or CPs may be unevenly distributed. To remediate these problems, in a second step, the preliminary registered image is subdivided into chips of 64 × 64 pixels, and each chip is matched with a corresponding chip in the reference image using normalized cross correlation (NCC). By doing so, more CPs with better spatial distribution are obtained. Two criteria are applied during the generation of CPs to identify outliers. Selected SIFT and NCC CPs are used for defining a nonrigid thin-plate-spline model. The proposed registration scheme has been tested using data from the Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) onboard the Project for On-Board Autonomy (Proba) satellite. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method works well in areas with little variation in topography. Application in areas with more pronounced relief would require the use of orthorectified image data in order to achieve subpixel registration accuracy.

Qualitative distinction of congeneric and introgressive mangrove species in mixed patchy forest assemblages using high spatial resolution remotely sensed imagery (IKONOS)

Abstract This paper is a preliminary report of the ability of IKONOS multispectral satellite imagery with a very high spatial resolution of 1 metre to distinguish two mangrove species in Sri Lanka belonging to the same genus (Rhizophora apiculata and R. mucronata). Not only is this an advancement for the monitoring of forests, it is even more important considering their patchy nature in Sri Lankan mangroves (in contrast to classically zoned forests). Apart from congeneric distinction, intro‐gressive species (Acrostichum aureum) can also be detected from IKONOS imagery, which is important in the early warning for cryptic ecological changes that may affect mangrove species composition (both floral and faunal) and functioning. The results tabulate the usage of various image composites, transformations and classifications, and indicate the danger of too much detail in remote sensing, and the need to apply an optimum resolution. We also highlight that the highest resolutions (as in pansharpened multispectral composites) remain invaluable for visual ecological investigations, which are not at all outdated by new digital satellite images of (sub)metre spatial resolution and their possibility for computer‐aided analysis.

Multiple Endmember Unmixing of CHRIS/Proba Imagery for Mapping Impervious Surfaces in Urban and Suburban Environments

In this paper, the potential of Compact High-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS)/Project for On-Board Autonomy data for impervious surface mapping is tested in a mixed urban/suburban/rural environment including part of the city of Leuven (Belgium) using multiple endmember unmixing. Various unmixing scenarios are compared, using different threshold values for the RMSE criterion applied to select the proper model for unmixing each pixel. Validation based on 25-cm aerial photography shows that the use of threshold values that favor the application of models with a small number of endmembers performs better compared to scenarios that make use of models with more endmembers. Detailed analysis of model selection for pixels with different land-cover composition indicates that the error in fraction estimation is partly related to spectral confusion between impervious surface types and bare soil, leading to the selection of inappropriate models for the unmixing. In spite of the spectral similarity of soil and impervious surface endmembers, average fractional error for impervious surfaces, vegetation, and bare soil is around 15%, which demonstrates the potential of CHRIS data for mapping the major physical components of the urban/suburban environment at the subpixel scale.

Hyperspectral Imagery Super-Resolution by Spatial–Spectral Joint Nonlocal Similarity

Hyperspectral (HS) super-resolution reconstruction is an ill-posed inversion problem, for which the solution from reconstruction constraint is not unique. To address this, an HS image super-resolution method is proposed to first utilize the joint regulation of spatial and spectral nonlocal similarities. We then fused the HS and panchromatic images with sparse regulation. With these two regulation terms, edge sharpness and spectrum consistency are preserved and noises are suppressed. The proposed method is tested with Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and Hyperion images and evaluated by quantitative measures. The resulting enhanced images from the proposed method are superior to the results obtained by other well-known methods.

Superresolution Enhancement of Hyperspectral CHRIS/Proba Images With a Thin-Plate Spline Nonrigid Transform Model

Given the hyperspectral-oriented waveband configuration of multiangular CHRIS/Proba imagery, the scope of its application could widen if the present 18-m resolution would be improved. The multiangular images of CHRIS could be used as input for superresolution (SR) image reconstruction. A critical procedure in SR is an accurate registration of the low-resolution images. Conventional methods based on affine transformation may not be effective given the local geometric distortion in high off-nadir angular images. This paper examines the use of a nonrigid transform to improve the result of a nonuniform interpolation and deconvolution SR method. A scale-invariant feature transform is used to collect control points (CPs). To ensure the quality of CPs, a rigorous screening procedure is designed: 1) an ambiguity test; 2) the m-estimator sample consensus method; and 3) an iterative method using statistical characteristics of the distribution of random errors. A thin-plate spline (TPS) nonrigid transform is then used for the registration. The proposed registration method is examined with a Delaunay triangulation-based nonuniform interpolation and reconstruction SR method. Our results show that the TPS nonrigid transform allows accurate registration of angular images. SR results obtained from simulated LR images are evaluated using three quantitative measures, namely, relative mean-square error, structural similarity, and edge stability. Compared to the SR methods that use an affine transform, our proposed method performs better with all three evaluation measures. With a higher level of spatial detail, SR-enhanced CHRIS images might be more effective than the original data in various applications.

Coupled Sparse Denoising and Unmixing With Low-Rank Constraint for Hyperspectral Image

Hyperspectral image (HSI) denoising is significant for correct interpretation. In this paper, a sparse representation framework that unifies denoising and spectral unmixing in a closed-loop manner is proposed. While conventional approaches treat denoising and unmixing separately, the proposed scheme utilizes spectral information from unmixing as feedback to correct spectral distortion. Both denoising and spectral unmixing act as constraints to the others and are solved iteratively. Noise is suppressed via sparse coding, and fractional abundance in spectral unmixing is estimated using the sparsity prior of endmembers from a spectral library. The abundance of endmembers is used as a spectral regularizer for denoising based on the hypothesis that spectral signatures obtained from a denoising process result are close to those of unmixing. Unmixing restrains spectral distortion and results in better denoising, which reciprocally leads to further improvements in unmixing. The strength of our proposed method is illustrated by simulated and real HSIs with performance competitive to the state-of-the-art denoising and unmixing methods.

Potential of Resolution-Enhanced Hyperspectral Data for Mineral Mapping Using Simulated EnMAP and Sentinel-2 Images

Spaceborne hyperspectral images are useful for large scale mineral mapping. Acquired at a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 30 m, the Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) will be capable of putting many issues related to environment monitoring and resource exploration in perspective with measurements in the spectral range between 420 and 2450 nm. However, a higher spatial resolution is preferable for many applications. This paper investigates the potential of fusion-based resolution enhancement of hyperspectral data for mineral mapping. A pair of EnMAP and Sentinel-2 images is generated from a HyMap scene over a mining area. The simulation is based on well-established sensor end-to-end simulation tools. The EnMAP image is fused with Sentinel-2 10-m-GSD bands using a matrix factorization method to obtain resolution-enhanced EnMAP data at a 10 m GSD. Quality assessments of the enhanced data are conducted using quantitative measures and continuum removal and both show that high spectral and spatial fidelity are maintained. Finally, the results of spectral unmixing are compared with those expected from high-resolution hyperspectral data at a 10 m GSD. The comparison demonstrates high resemblance and shows the great potential of the resolution enhancement method for EnMAP type data in mineral mapping.

An Operational Superresolution Approach for Multi-Temporal and Multi-Angle Remotely Sensed Imagery

In this paper we propose an operational superresolution (SR) approach for multi-temporal and multi-angle remote sensing imagery. The method consists of two stages: registration and reconstruction. In the registration stage a hybrid patch-based registration scheme that can account for local geometric distortion and photometric disparity is proposed. Obstacles like clouds or cloud shadows are detected as part of the registration process. For the reconstruction stage a SR reconstruction model composed of the L1 norm data fidelity and total variation (TV) regularization is defined, with its reconstruction object function being efficiently solved by the steepest descent method. Other SR methods can be easily incorporated in the proposed framework as well. The proposed algorithms are tested with multi-temporal and multi-angle WorldView-2 imagery. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

A comparison of superresolution reconstruction methods for multi-angle CHRIS/Proba images

Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer onboard the Project for On-board Autonomy, or CHRIS/Proba, represents a new generation of satellite images that provide different acquisitions of the same scene at five different angles. Given the hyperspectral-oriented waveband configuration of the CHRIS images, the scope of its application would be much wider if the present 17m nadir resolution could be refined. This paper presents the results of three superresolution methods applied to multiangular CHRIS/Proba data. The CHRIS images were preprocessed and then calibrated into reflectance using the method described in [1][2]. Automatic registration using an intensity variation approach described in [3] was implemented for motion estimation. Three methods, namely non-uniform interpolation and de-convolution [4], iterative back-projection [5], and total variation [6] are examined. Quantitative measures including peak signal to noise ratio [7], structural similarity [8], and edge stability [9], are used for the evaluation of the image quality. To further examine the benefit of multi-frame superresolution methods, a single-frame superresolution method of bicubic resampling was also applied. Our results show that a high resolution image derived from superresolution methods enhance spatial resolution and provides substantially more image details. The spectral profiles of selected land covers before and after the application of superresolution show negligible differences, hinting the use of superresolution algorithm would not degrade the capability of the data set for classification. Among the three methods, total variation gives the best performance in all quantitative measures. Visual inspections find good results with total variation and iterative back-projection approaches. The use of superresolution algorithms, however, is complex as there are many parameters. In this paper, most of the parameter settings were tuned manually or decided empirically.

Impact of Urban Land-Cover Classification on Groundwater Recharge Uncertainty

Objective and detailed mapping of urban land-cover types over large areas is important for hydrological modelling, as most man-made land-cover consist of sealed surfaces which strongly reduce groundwater recharge. Moreover, impervious surfaces are the predominant type in urbanized areas and can lead to increased surface runoff. Classification of man-made objects in urbanized areas is not straightforward due to similarity in spectral properties. This study examines the use of hyperspectral CHRIS-Proba images for complex urban land-cover classification of the Woluwe River catchment, Brussels, Belgium. Two methods are compared: 1) a multiscale region-based classification approach, which is based on a causal Markovian model being defined on a Multiscale Region Adjacency Tree and a set of nonparametric dissimilarity measures; and 2) a pixel based classification method with a Mahalanobis distance classifier. Multiscale region-based classification results in a Kappa value of 0.95 while pixel-based classification has a slightly lower Kappa value of 0.92. The impact of the classification method on the hydrology is estimated with the application of the WetSpass physically-based distributed water balance model. The model uncertainty is assessed with the use of a Monte Carlo simulation. Model results show that the region-based classification yields to a higher yearly recharge than the pixel-based classification. The overall uncertainty, quantified by the Monte Carlo method is lower for the region-based classification than for the pixel-based classification. The presented study indicates that the selection of the classification technique is of critical importance for the outcome of hydrological models.