Multi-feature combined cloud and cloud shadow detection in GF-1 WFV imagery

The wide field of view (WFV) imaging system onboard the Chinese GF-1 optical satellite has a 16-m resolution and four-day revisit cycle for large-scale Earth observation. The advantages of the high temporal-spatial resolution and the wide field of view make the GF-1 WFV imagery very popular. However, cloud cover is a common problem in GF-1 WFV imagery which influences its precise application. Cloud and cloud shadow detection in GF-1 WFV imagery is quite difficult due to the fact that there are only four visible and near-infrared bands. In this paper, an automatic multi-feature combined (MFC) method is proposed for cloud and cloud shadow detection in GF-1 WFV imagery. The MFC method first implements threshold segmentation based on the spectral features, and guided filtering to generate a preliminary cloud mask. The geometric features are then used in combination with texture features to improve the cloud detection results and produce the final cloud mask. Finally, the cloud shadow mask can be acquired by means of the cloud and shadow matching and follow-up correction process. The method was validated on 16 scenes randomly selected from different areas of China. The results indicate that MFC performs well under different conditions, and the average cloud classification accuracy of MFC is as high as 98.3%. When relatively compared to Fmask, MFC achieved almost the same accuracy of the cloud and cloud shadow in GF-1 WFV imagery with less spectral bands. The method proposed in this paper is developed with the goal of implementing fast and high-precision cloud and cloud shadow detection, and it will be applied to the land cover remote sensing monitoring project on a national scale.