Journal of Remote Sensing & GIS

Abstract

Cloud Detection Based on Convolutional Neural Network using Different Bands Information for Landsat 8 OLI

Nan Ma, Chunxing Wang, Sun Lin and Quan Wang

The existence of clouds has seriously affected the application of remote sensing data. Therefore, accurate cloud detection is of great significance in remote sensing image processing and application. Traditional cloud detection methods are complex to operate and often require the additional ancillary information. An automatic cloud detection method based on convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed in this study. The method utilizes a convolutional network structure to classify training samples for cloud and non-cloud. In order to make full use of image information, images of different band numbers are applied to evaluate the influence of the spectrum on cloud detection. Experiments and verification on Landsat 8 images show that the proposed method based on CNN can comprehensively and automatically detect different types of clouds on different surface types, and the cloud detection result using 7 bands is the optimal. The algorithm takes full advantage of image information and does not rely on thermal infrared information, which has practical application value for improving image utilization and subsequent retrieval of remote sensing parameters.