A Novel Image Fusion System for Multisensor and Multiband Remote Sensing Data

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a novel image fusion system for multisensor and multiband remote sensing data with an objective to synthesize an image which is either not feasible or not economical to obtain from single remote sensing satellite image. The fusion system focuses on objective, selection of data, pre-processing, registration, and fusion methodology with results. The paper also emphasizes on understanding of physics of remote sensing for meeting the objective as well as for success of fusion. In view of availability and archival of huge amount of remote sensing imagery from several satellites, different combinations for fusion from multisensor and multiband images are proposed. Due to use of images with differing modalities, resolution, and time of acquisition for fusion, a generalized and robust image registration methodology is adopted. Appropriate fusion methodologies are proposed for different fusion combinations and their results are illustrated and compared.

Keywords:

• Image fusion
• Mutual information
• PAN sharpening
• SAR (synthetic aperture radar)
• Multipolarization
• SAR sharpening

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are extremely thankful to Sri S. K. Patra and Sri P. Suresh Kumar for their valuable suggestions and help provided in the preparation of data.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

R. Chandrakanth

R. Chandrakanth obtained BE in electronics and communication Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad and MTech in microwave and radar Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur. Currently, he is heading Image Processing Division in ADRIN, Department of Space, Hyderabad. His research interests include image fusion, computer vision, image processing and information extraction from EO and SAR sensors, SAR interferometry and analysis. He has over 20 publications in national and international conferences and journals.

E-mail: [email protected]

J. Saibaba

J. Saibaba obtained PhD from IISc Bangalore in the area of image processing. Currently, he is working as deputy director, Satellite Data Analysis and Applications. His research interests include Image processing and geospatial data analysis. He is member of Indian Society of Remote Sensing and Indian Society of Geomatics. He has over 50 publications in national and international conferences and journals.

E-mail: [email protected]

Geeta Varadan

Geeta Varadan obtained BE in electronics and communication engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad and ME in controls and computer sciences from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She started her professional career with LRDE, Bangalore in 1976. She joined Dept. of Space in 1979. She has been responsible for conceptualization and realization of a number of projects of national importance, establishment of five remote sensing centres and four associate centres and also setting up of Remote Sensing Centre at Mauritius. She has more than 35 publications in the areas of remote sensing and communications. Her research areas include data processing, data security, cloud computing, GP/GPU based processing and embedded systems for remote sensing applications. She is recipient of numerous awards which include ISRO Merit Award, Team Award, Women in Science Award by India Today, Women Scientist Award by Astronautical Society of India, Millenium Plaques of Honour by 99th Indian Science Congress etc. Currently, she is director of Advanced Data Processing Research Institute (ADRIN), Dept. of Space, Hyderabad.

E-mail: [email protected]

P. Ananth Raj

P. Ananth Raj obtained his PhD from IIT Kharagpur in the area of computer vision and neural networks in 1994. He joined as faculty in the ECE Department, College of Engineering, Osmania University, Hyderabad in 1986 and currently he is professor since 2006. He offered neural networks, image processing, computer vision, multimedia information for both undergraduate and postgraduate students of ECE Department. He has published 36 papers in national and international conferences in the area of image processing, and has reviewed 25 technical papers for IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics, international journals and various international conferences. He is a senior member of IEEE (USA). He completed two AICTE projects in the areas of video segmentation and super resolution. Before joining faculty at Osmania University he was associated with IIT Kharagpur as senior research assistant and junior scientific officer in the electronics and electrical communications department from 1981 to 1985. He has been guiding PhD students in the areas of orthogonal moments, image segmentation and fusion.

E-mail: [email protected]