"Super-resolution of PROBA-V images using convolutional neural networks" by Marcus Märtens, Dario Izzo et al.

Article Title

Super-resolution of PROBA-V images using convolutional neural networks

Authors

Marcus Märtens, European Space Agency, Noordwijk 2001 AZ, the Netherleneds.
Dario Izzo, European Space Agency, Noordwijk 2001 AZ, the Netherleneds.
Andrej Krzic, European Space Agency, Noordwijk 2001 AZ, the Netherleneds.
Daniël Cox, European Space Agency, Noordwijk 2001 AZ, the Netherleneds.

Keywords

deep learning, convolutional neural network, (CNN), super-resolution imaging, remote sensing, Earth observation (EO)

Abstract

European Space Aqency (ESA)’s PROBA-V Earth observation (EO) satellite enables us tomonitor our planet at a large scale to study the interaction between vegetation and climate,and provides guidance for important decisions on our common global future. However, theinterval at which high-resolution images are recorded spans over several days, in contrastto the availability of lower-resolution images which is often daily. We collect an extensivedataset of both high- and low-resolution images taken by PROBA-V instruments duringmonthly periods to investigate Multi Image Super-resolution, a technique to merge severallow-resolution images into one image of higher quality. We propose a convolutional neuralnetwork (CNN) that is able to cope with changes in illumination, cloud coverage, andlandscape features which are introduced by the fact that the different images are takenover successive satellite passages at the same region. Given a bicubic upscaling of lowresolution images taken under optimal conditions, we find the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio ofthe reconstructed image of the network to be higher for a large majority of different scenes.This shows that applied machine learning has the potential to enhance large amounts ofpreviously collected EO data during multiple satellite passes.