Multi Sensor Systems And Data Fusion In Remote Sensing

Remote sensing is developing rapidly due to progress in many interconnected fields. It includes the emergence of new sensors, development of sophisticated platforms for those sensors, and advances in signal and data processing. The progress in the fields of radar, optoelectronic, acoustic, magnetic, chemical, and other sensors is stunning. Whereas the mentioned sensors are currently more sensitive and accurate, have improved resolutions, data rates, and dynamical ranges, they still have their limitations. The utilization of multi-sensor systems and joint processing of their signals or data has long been considered an effective solution for reducing the disadvantages and best utilizing their strengths. The emergence of new types of sensors creates an opportunity for scientists and engineers to develop new and more capable integrated multi-sensor systems. It is necessary to mention that the users' expectations with respect to the size of the observed area or volume, data resolution, accuracy, speed of operation, and functionality of remote sensing systems are still increasing. Extended frequency bands, improved resolutions, and data rates of the new sensors as well as the common use of distributed sensors increase the influx of data in contemporary multi-sensor systems. These facts pose new challenges for the data fusion algorithms that must often employ the newest achievements from the areas of big data mining, statistical estimation, artificial intelligence, etc. This book contains a collection of papers that provide a fresh insight into the newest developments in the fields of multi-sensor systems and data fusion.

The emerging technology of multisensor data fusion has a wide range of applications, both in Department of Defense (DoD) areas and in the civilian arena. The techniques of multisensor data fusion draw from an equally broad range of disciplines, including artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, and statistical estimation. With the rapid evolut

This book includes papers from the section “Multisensor Information Fusion”, from Sensors between 2018 to 2019. It focuses on the latest research results of current multi-sensor fusion technologies and represents the latest research trends, including traditional information fusion technologies, estimation and filtering, and the latest research, artificial intelligence involving deep learning.

In the last few years the scientific community has realized that obtaining a better understanding of interactions between natural systems and the man-made environment across different scales demands more research efforts in remote sensing. An integrated Earth system observatory that merges surface-based, air-borne, space-borne, and even underground sensors with comprehensive and predictive capabilities indicates promise for revolutionizing the study of global water, energy, and carbon cycles as well as land use and land cover changes. The aim of this book is to present a suite of relevant concepts, tools, and methods of integrated multisensor data fusion and machine learning technologies to promote environmental sustainability. The process of machine learning for intelligent feature extraction consists of regular, deep, and fast learning algorithms. The niche for integrating data fusion and machine learning for remote sensing rests upon the creation of a new scientific architecture in remote sensing science that is designed to support numerical as well as symbolic feature extraction managed by several cognitively oriented machine learning tasks at finer scales. By grouping a suite of satellites with similar nature in platform design, data merging may come to help for cloudy pixel reconstruction over the space domain or concatenation of time series images over the time domain, or even both simultaneously. Organized in 5 parts, from Fundamental Principles of Remote Sensing; Feature Extraction for Remote Sensing; Image and Data Fusion for Remote Sensing; Integrated Data Merging, Data Reconstruction, Data Fusion, and Machine Learning; to Remote Sensing for Environmental Decision Analysis, the book will be a useful reference for graduate students, academic scholars, and working professionals who are involved in the study of Earth systems and the environment for a sustainable future. The new knowledge in this book can be applied successfully in many areas of environmental science and engineering.

In the last few years the scientific community has realized that obtaining a better understanding of interactions between natural systems and the man-made environment across different scales demands more research efforts in remote sensing. An integrated Earth system observatory that merges surface-based, air-borne, space-borne, and even underground sensors with comprehensive and predictive capabilities indicates promise for revolutionizing the study of global water, energy, and carbon cycles as well as land use and land cover changes. The aim of this book is to present a suite of relevant concepts, tools, and methods of integrated multisensor data fusion and machine learning technologies to promote environmental sustainability. The process of machine learning for intelligent feature extraction consists of regular, deep, and fast learning algorithms. The niche for integrating data fusion and machine learning for remote sensing rests upon the creation of a new scientific architecture in remote sensing science that is designed to support numerical as well as symbolic feature extraction managed by several cognitively oriented machine learning tasks at finer scales. By grouping a suite of satellites with similar nature in platform design, data merging may come to help for cloudy pixel reconstruction over the space domain or concatenation of time series images over the time domain, or even both simultaneously. Organized in 5 parts, from Fundamental Principles of Remote Sensing; Feature Extraction for Remote Sensing; Image and Data Fusion for Remote Sensing; Integrated Data Merging, Data Reconstruction, Data Fusion, and Machine Learning; to Remote Sensing for Environmental Decision Analysis, the book will be a useful reference for graduate students, academic scholars, and working professionals who are involved in the study of Earth systems and the environment for a sustainable future. The new knowledge in this book can be applied successfully in many areas of environmental science and engineering.

Information fusion resulting from multi-source processing, often called multisensor data fusion when sensors are the main sources of information, is a relatively young (less than 20 years) technology domain. It provides techniques and methods for: Integrating data from multiple sources and using the complementarity of this data to derive maximum information about the phenomenon being observed; Analyzing and deriving the meaning of these observations; Selecting the best course of action; and Controlling the actions. Various sensors have been designed to detect some specific phenomena, but not others. Data fusion applications can combine synergically information from many sensors, including data provided by satellites and contextual and encyclopedic knowledge, to provide enhanced ability to detect and recognize anomalies in the environment, compared with conventional means. Data fusion is an integral part of multisensor processing, but it can also be applied to fuse non-sensor information (geopolitical, intelligence, etc.) to provide decision support for a timely and effective situation and threat assessment. One special field of application for data fusion is satellite imagery, which can provide extensive information over a wide area of the electromagnetic spectrum using several types of sensors (Visible, Infra-Red (IR), Thermal IR, Radar, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Polarimetric SAR (PolSAR), Hyperspectral...). Satellite imagery provides the coverage rate needed to identify and monitor human activities from agricultural practices (land use, crop types identification...) to defence-related surveillance (land/sea target detection and classification). By acquiring remotely sensed imagery over earth regions that land sensors cannot access, valuable information can be gathered for the defence against terrorism. This books deals with the following research areas: Target recognition/classification and tracking; Sensor systems; Image processing; Remote sensing and remote control; Belief functions theory; and Situation assessment.

Remote Sensing Image Fusion: A Practical Guide gives an introduction to remote sensing image fusion providing an overview on the sensors and applications. It describes data selection, application requirements and the choice of a suitable image fusion technique. It comprises a diverse selection of successful image fusion cases that are relevant to other users and other areas of interest around the world. The book helps newcomers to obtain a quick start into the practical value and benefits of multi-sensor image fusion. Experts will find this book useful to obtain an overview on the state of the art and understand current constraints that need to be solved in future research efforts. For industry professionals the book can be a great introduction and basis to understand multisensor remote sensing image exploitation and the development of commercialized image fusion software from a practical perspective. The book concludes with a chapter on current trends and future developments in remote sensing image fusion. Along with the book, RSIF website provides additional up-to-date information in the field.