A saliency model-oriented convolution neural network for cloud detection in remote sensing images

Remote sensing is an indispensable technical way for monitoring earth resources and environmental changes. However, optical remote sensing images often contain a large number of cloud, especially in tropical rain forest areas, make it difficult to obtain completely cloud-free remote sensing images. Therefore, accurate cloud detection is of great research value for optical remote sensing applications. In this paper, we propose a saliency model-oriented convolution neural network for cloud detection in remote sensing images. Firstly, we adopt Kernel Principal Component Analysis (KCPA) to unsupervised pre-training the network. Secondly, small labeled samples are used to fine-tune the network structure. And, remote sensing images are performed with super-pixel approach before cloud detection to eliminate the irrelevant backgrounds and non-clouds object. Thirdly, the image blocks are input into the trained convolutional neural network (CNN) for cloud detection. Meanwhile, the segmented image will be recovered. Fourth, we fuse the detected result with the saliency map of raw image to further improve the accuracy of detection result. Experiments show that the proposed method can accurately detect cloud. Compared to other state-of-the-art cloud detection method, the new method has better robustness.