Validating Enhanced Resolution of Microwave Sounder Imagery Through Fusion with Infrared Sensors| Data

Abstract

In this paper, we describe and validate a data fusion methodology and apply it to enhance the resolution of a microwave image using the data from a collocated infrared/visible sensor. Such an approach takes advantage of the spatial resolution of the infrared instrument and the sensing accuracy of the microwave instrument. We test our method using a precipitation scene captured with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-B) microwave instrument and the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) infrared instrument and compare the results to simultaneous radar observations. We show that the data fusion product is better than the original AMSU-Band AVHRR observations across all statistical indicators.