Analysing the Relationship between Spatial Resolution, Sharpness and Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery Using an Automatic Edge Method
Assessing the performance of optical imaging systems is crucial to evaluate their capability to satisfy the product requirements for an Earth Observation (EO) mission. In particular, the evaluation of image quality is undoubtedly one of the most important, critical and problematic aspects of remote...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/16/6/1041 |
| _version_ | 1797239457544404992 |
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| author | Valerio Pampanoni Fabio Fascetti Luca Cenci Giovanni Laneve Carla Santella Valentina Boccia |
| author_facet | Valerio Pampanoni Fabio Fascetti Luca Cenci Giovanni Laneve Carla Santella Valentina Boccia |
| author_sort | Valerio Pampanoni |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Assessing the performance of optical imaging systems is crucial to evaluate their capability to satisfy the product requirements for an Earth Observation (EO) mission. In particular, the evaluation of image quality is undoubtedly one of the most important, critical and problematic aspects of remote sensing. It involves not only pre-flight analyses, but also continuous monitoring throughout the operational lifetime of the observing system. The Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) of the imaging system is often the only parameter used to quantify its spatial resolution, i.e., its capability to resolve objects on the ground. In practice, this feature is also heavily influenced by other image quality parameters such as the image sharpness and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). However, these last two aspects are often analysed separately, using unrelated methodologies, complicating the image quality assessment and posing standardisation issues. To this end, we expanded the features of our Automatic Edge Method (AEM), which was originally developed to simplify and automate the estimate of sharpness metrics, to also extract the image SNR. In this paper we applied the AEM to a wide range of optical satellite images characterised by different GSD and Pixel Size (PS) with the objective to explore the nature of the relationship between the components of overall image quality (image sharpness, SNR) and product geometric resampling (expressed in terms of GSD/PS ratio). Our main objective is to quantify how the sharpness and the radiometric quality of an image product are affected by different product geometric resampling strategies, i.e., by distributing imagery with a PS larger or smaller than the GSD of the imaging system. The AEM allowed us to explore this relationship by relying on a vast amount of data points, which provide a robust statistical significance to the results expressed in terms of sharpness metrics and SNR means. The results indicate the existence of a direct relationship between the product geometric resampling and the overall image quality, and also highlight a good degree of correlation between the image sharpness and SNR. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T17:51:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-87f1a5c5a693443ebf6df380f217db69 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T17:51:51Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-87f1a5c5a693443ebf6df380f217db692024-03-27T14:02:41ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922024-03-01166104110.3390/rs16061041Analysing the Relationship between Spatial Resolution, Sharpness and Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery Using an Automatic Edge MethodValerio Pampanoni0Fabio Fascetti1Luca Cenci2Giovanni Laneve3Carla Santella4Valentina Boccia5School of Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 00138 Rome, ItalySerco Italia SpA, 00044 Frascati, ItalyCIMA Research Foundation, 17100 Savona, ItalySchool of Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 00138 Rome, ItalySerco Italia SpA, 00044 Frascati, ItalyEuropean Space Agency (ESA), 00044 Frascati, ItalyAssessing the performance of optical imaging systems is crucial to evaluate their capability to satisfy the product requirements for an Earth Observation (EO) mission. In particular, the evaluation of image quality is undoubtedly one of the most important, critical and problematic aspects of remote sensing. It involves not only pre-flight analyses, but also continuous monitoring throughout the operational lifetime of the observing system. The Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) of the imaging system is often the only parameter used to quantify its spatial resolution, i.e., its capability to resolve objects on the ground. In practice, this feature is also heavily influenced by other image quality parameters such as the image sharpness and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). However, these last two aspects are often analysed separately, using unrelated methodologies, complicating the image quality assessment and posing standardisation issues. To this end, we expanded the features of our Automatic Edge Method (AEM), which was originally developed to simplify and automate the estimate of sharpness metrics, to also extract the image SNR. In this paper we applied the AEM to a wide range of optical satellite images characterised by different GSD and Pixel Size (PS) with the objective to explore the nature of the relationship between the components of overall image quality (image sharpness, SNR) and product geometric resampling (expressed in terms of GSD/PS ratio). Our main objective is to quantify how the sharpness and the radiometric quality of an image product are affected by different product geometric resampling strategies, i.e., by distributing imagery with a PS larger or smaller than the GSD of the imaging system. The AEM allowed us to explore this relationship by relying on a vast amount of data points, which provide a robust statistical significance to the results expressed in terms of sharpness metrics and SNR means. The results indicate the existence of a direct relationship between the product geometric resampling and the overall image quality, and also highlight a good degree of correlation between the image sharpness and SNR.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/16/6/1041earth observationimage qualityspatial resolutionsharpnessedge methodrer |
| spellingShingle | Valerio Pampanoni Fabio Fascetti Luca Cenci Giovanni Laneve Carla Santella Valentina Boccia Analysing the Relationship between Spatial Resolution, Sharpness and Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery Using an Automatic Edge Method Remote Sensing earth observation image quality spatial resolution sharpness edge method rer |
| title | Analysing the Relationship between Spatial Resolution, Sharpness and Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery Using an Automatic Edge Method |
| title_full | Analysing the Relationship between Spatial Resolution, Sharpness and Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery Using an Automatic Edge Method |
| title_fullStr | Analysing the Relationship between Spatial Resolution, Sharpness and Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery Using an Automatic Edge Method |
| title_full_unstemmed | Analysing the Relationship between Spatial Resolution, Sharpness and Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery Using an Automatic Edge Method |
| title_short | Analysing the Relationship between Spatial Resolution, Sharpness and Signal-to-Noise Ratio of Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery Using an Automatic Edge Method |
| title_sort | analysing the relationship between spatial resolution sharpness and signal to noise ratio of very high resolution satellite imagery using an automatic edge method |
| topic | earth observation image quality spatial resolution sharpness edge method rer |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/16/6/1041 |
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