Cloud Detection from RGB Color Remote Sensing Images with Deep Pyramid Networks

Cloud detection from remotely observed data is a critical pre-processing step for various remote sensing applications. In particular, this problem becomes even harder for RGB color images, since there is no distinct spectral pattern for clouds, which is directly separable from the Earth surface. In this paper, we adapt a deep pyramid network (DPN) to tackle this problem. For this purpose, the network is enhanced with a pre-trained parameter model at the encoder layer. Moreover, the method is able to obtain accurate pixel-level segmentation and classification results from a set of noisy labeled RGB color images. In order to demonstrate the superiority of the method, we collect and label data with the corresponding cloud/non-cloudy masks acquired from low-orbit Gokturk-2 and RASAT satellites. The experimental results validates that the proposed method outperforms several baselines even for hard cases (e.g. snowy mountains) that are perceptually difficult to distinguish by human eyes.