CPU/GPU near real-time preprocessing for ZY-3 satellite images: Relative radiometric correction, MTF compensation, and geocorrection

Abstract ZY-3 is the first high-accuracy civil stereo-mapping optical satellite of China. It greatly improves China’s optical satellite image resolution with a boom in data volume, calling for new challenges in processing real-time applications. On the other hand, using central processing unit (CPU)/graphic processing unit (GPU) to resolve data-intensive remote sensing problems becomes a hot issue. In this paper, we present an approach for CPU/GPU near real-time preprocessing of ZY-3 satellite images, focusing on three key processors: relative radiometric correction (RRC), modulation transfer function compensation (MTFC), and geocorrection (GC). First, basic GPU implementation issues are addressed to make the processors capable of processing with GPU. Second, three effective GPU specific optimizations are applied for further improvement of the GPU performance. Furthermore, to fully exploit the CPU’s computing horsepower within the system, a CPU/GPU workload distribution scheme is proposed, in which CPU undertakes partial computation to share the workloads of GPU. The experimental result shows that our approach achieved an overall 48.84-fold speedup ratio in ZY-3 nadir image preprocessing (the corresponding run time is 11.60 s for one image), which is capable of meeting the requirement of near real-time response to the applications that follow. In addition, with the supportability of IEEE 754–2008 floating-point standard in the Fermi type GPU, preprocessing ZY-3 images with our CPU/GPU processors could maintain the quality of image preprocess as done traditionally with CPU processors.