Automatic Generation of Aerial Orthoimages Using Sentinel-2 Satellite Imagery with a Context-Based Deep Learning Approach

Aerial images are an outstanding option for observing terrain with their high-resolution (HR) capability. The high operational cost of aerial images makes it difficult to acquire periodic observation of the region of interest. Satellite imagery is an alternative for the problem, but low-resolution is an obstacle. In this study, we proposed a context-based approach to simulate the 10 m resolution of Sentinel-2 imagery to produce 2.5 and 5.0 m prediction images using the aerial orthoimage acquired over the same period. The proposed model was compared with an enhanced deep super-resolution network (EDSR), which has excellent performance among the existing super-resolution (SR) deep learning algorithms, using the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index measure (SSIM), and root-mean-squared error (RMSE). Our context-based ResU-Net outperformed the EDSR in all three metrics. The inclusion of the 60 m resolution of Sentinel-2 imagery performs better through fine-tuning. When 60 m images were included, RMSE decreased, and PSNR and SSIM increased. The result also validated that the denser the neural network, the higher the quality. Moreover, the accuracy is much higher when both denser feature dimensions and the 60 m images were used.

Automated summary

Aerial images provide high-resolution for observing terrain, but their high operational cost makes it challenging to acquire frequent observations. This study proposed a context-based approach to simulate high-resolution satellite imagery using aerial images, with the results showing improved performance when denser neural networks and lower resolution images were combined.