Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Remote Sensing of Environment. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Remote Sensing of Environment, 256, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2021.112325
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Blocks-removed spatial unmixing for downscaling MODIS images
AU - Wang, Q.
AU - Peng, K.
AU - Tang, Y.
AU - Tong, X.
AU - Atkinson, P.M.
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Remote Sensing of Environment. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Remote Sensing of Environment, 256, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2021.112325
PY - 2021/4/1
Y1 - 2021/4/1
N2 - The Terra/Aqua MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data have been used widely for global monitoring of the Earth's surface due to their daily fine temporal resolution. The spatial resolution of MODIS time-series (i.e., 500 m), however, is too coarse for local monitoring. A feasible solution to this problem is to downscale the coarse MODIS images, thus creating time-series images with both fine spatial and temporal resolutions. Generally, the downscaling of MODIS images can be achieved by fusing them with fine spatial resolution images (e.g., Landsat images) using spatio-temporal fusion methods. Among the families of spatio-temporal fusion methods, spatial unmixing-based methods have been applied widely owing to their lighter dependence on the available fine spatial resolution images. However, all techniques within this class of method suffer from the same serious problem, that is, the block effect, which reduces the prediction accuracy of spatio-temporal fusion. To our knowledge, almost no solution has been developed to tackle this issue directly. To address this need, this paper proposes a blocks-removed spatial unmixing (SU-BR) method, which removes the blocky artifacts by including a new constraint constructed based on spatial continuity. SU-BR provides a flexible framework suitable for any existing spatial unmixing-based spatio-temporal fusion method. Experimental results on a heterogeneous region, a homogeneous region and a region experiencing land cover changes show that SU-BR removes the blocks effectively and increases the prediction accuracy obviously in all three regions. SU-BR also outperforms two popular spatio-temporal fusion methods. SU-BR, thus, provides a crucial solution to overcome one of the longest standing challenges in spatio-temporal fusion. © 2021 Elsevier Inc.
AB - The Terra/Aqua MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data have been used widely for global monitoring of the Earth's surface due to their daily fine temporal resolution. The spatial resolution of MODIS time-series (i.e., 500 m), however, is too coarse for local monitoring. A feasible solution to this problem is to downscale the coarse MODIS images, thus creating time-series images with both fine spatial and temporal resolutions. Generally, the downscaling of MODIS images can be achieved by fusing them with fine spatial resolution images (e.g., Landsat images) using spatio-temporal fusion methods. Among the families of spatio-temporal fusion methods, spatial unmixing-based methods have been applied widely owing to their lighter dependence on the available fine spatial resolution images. However, all techniques within this class of method suffer from the same serious problem, that is, the block effect, which reduces the prediction accuracy of spatio-temporal fusion. To our knowledge, almost no solution has been developed to tackle this issue directly. To address this need, this paper proposes a blocks-removed spatial unmixing (SU-BR) method, which removes the blocky artifacts by including a new constraint constructed based on spatial continuity. SU-BR provides a flexible framework suitable for any existing spatial unmixing-based spatio-temporal fusion method. Experimental results on a heterogeneous region, a homogeneous region and a region experiencing land cover changes show that SU-BR removes the blocks effectively and increases the prediction accuracy obviously in all three regions. SU-BR also outperforms two popular spatio-temporal fusion methods. SU-BR, thus, provides a crucial solution to overcome one of the longest standing challenges in spatio-temporal fusion. © 2021 Elsevier Inc.
KW - Block effect
KW - Downscaling
KW - Image fusion
KW - Landsat
KW - MODIS
KW - Spatial unmixing
KW - Spatio-temporal fusion
U2 - 10.1016/j.rse.2021.112325
DO - 10.1016/j.rse.2021.112325
M3 - Journal article
VL - 256
JO - Remote Sensing of Environment
JF - Remote Sensing of Environment
SN - 0034-4257
M1 - 112325
ER -