Content-based hyperspectral image retrieval using spectral unmixing

Abstract

The purpose of content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is to retrieve, from real data stored in a database, information that is relevant to a query. A major challenge for the development of efficient CBIR systems in the context of hyperspectral remote sensing applications is how to deal with the extremely large volumes of data produced by current Earth-observing (EO) imaging spectrometers. The data resulting from EO campaigns often comprises many Gigabytes per flight. When multiple instruments or timelines are combined, this leads to the collection of massive amounts of data coming from heterogeneous sources, and these data sets need to be effectively stored, managed, shared and retrieved. Furthermore, the growth in size and number of hyperspectral data archives demands more sophisticated search capabilities to allow users to locate and reuse data acquired in the past. In this paper we develop a new strategy to effectively retrieve hyperspectral image data sets using spectral unmixing concepts. Spectral unmixing is a very important task for hyperspectral data exploitation since the spectral signatures collected in natural environments are invariably a mixture of the pure signatures of the various materials found within the spatial extent of the ground instantaneous field view of the imaging instrument. In this work, we use the information provided by spectral unmixing (i.e. the spectral endmembers and their corresponding abundances in the scene) as effective meta-data to develop a new CBIR system that can assist users in the task of efficiently searching hyperspectral image instances in large data repositories. The proposed approach is validated using a collection of 154 hyperspectral data sets (comprising seven full flightlines) gathered by NASA using the Airborne Visible Infra-Red Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) over the World Trade Center (WTC) area in New York City during the last two weeks of September, 2001, only a few days after the terrorist attacks that collapsed the two main towers and other buildings in the WTC complex.