The morphological pyramid concept as a tool for multi-resolution data fusion in remote sensing

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Laporterie, Florence^{a; b; *} | Flouzat, Guy^b

Affiliations: [a] Supaero (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace), 10 avenue Edouard Belin, 31055 Toulouse cedex 4, France | [b] CESBIO, 18 avenue Edouard Belin, 31401 Toulouse cedex 4, France

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Florence Laporterie, CESBIO, 18 avenue Edouard Belin, 31401 Toulouse cedex 4, France. Tel.: +33 5 61 55 64 83; Fax: +33 5 61 55 85 00; E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract: This paper presents the morphological pyramid concept, a new approach which can be used for both image analysis and fusion in remote sensing. After a review on multi-sources images fusion methods in Earth observation from space, the morphological pyramid is presented. Its properties are described and then the principle of spatial and temporal fusion of remotely sensed images is shown through two examples. The first one deals with multi-date images, the second one combines in an original way two types of images coming from two sensors onboard the same satellite SPOT 4: the HRVIR one provides high resolution images (10 or 20 m) but coarse temporal frequency, and the VEGETATION sensor provides high frequency images with coarse spatial resolution (1 km). Finally, exploitation and analysis of merged images through the pyramid are shown.

Keywords: remote sensing, data fusion, pyramid algorithms, mathematical morphology

DOI: 10.3233/ICA-2003-10107

Journal: Integrated Computer-Aided Engineering, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 63-79, 2003