Cloud Detection in High-Resolution Remote Sensing Images Using Multi-features of Ground Objects

The existence of clouds in high-resolution remote sensing images influences target recognition and feature classification. Therefore, finding areas covered with clouds is an important preprocessing step in remote sensing image applications. This paper proposes a cloud detection method for satellite images with high resolution using ground objects’ multi-features, such as color, texture, and shape. First, the highly reflective areas are extracted from the image using the minimum cross entropy threshold method. Second, the multi-scale image decomposition based on domain transform filter extracts the texture features of ground objects. Finally, based on the shape features, regular-shaped artificial ground objects are removed to further improve cloud detection accuracy. The experimental results show that the proposed method not only improves the overall accuracy rate but also reduces the false positive rate compared to the classical traditional cloud detection methods. The method is suitable for cloud detection in high-resolution remote sensing images with complex ground objects.