Matching multi-sensor remote sensing images via an affinity tensor

Abstract

Matching multi-sensor remote sensing images is still a challenging task due to textural changes and non-linear intensity differences. In this paper, a novel matching method is proposed for multi-sensor remote sensing images. To establish feature correspondences, an affinity tensor is used to integrate geometric and radiometric information. The matching process consists of three steps. First, features from an accelerated segment test are extracted from both source and target images, and two complete graphs are constructed with their nodes representing these features. Then, the geometric and radiometric similarities of the feature points are represented by the three-order affinity tensor, and the initial feature correspondences are established by tensor power iteration. Finally, a tensor-based mismatch detection process is conducted to purify the initial matched points. The robustness and capability of the proposed method are tested with a variety of remote sensing images such as Ziyuan-3 backward, Ziyuan-3 nadir, Gaofen-1, Gaofen-2, unmanned aerial vehicle platform, and Jilin-1. The experiments show that the average matching recall is greater than 0.5, which outperforms state-of-the-art multi-sensor image-matching algorithms such as SIFT, SURF, NG-SIFT, OR-SIFT and GOM-SIFT.