Fusion of High-Resolution SAR and Optical Imageries Based on a Wavelet Transform and IHS Integrated Algorithm

Abstract

Multi-sensor remote sensing data can significantly improve the interpretation and usage of large volume data sources. A combination of satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data and optical sensors enables the use of complementary features of the same image. In this paper, SAR data is injected into optical image using a combining fusion method based on the integration of wavelet Transform and IHS (Intensity, Hue, and Saturation) transform. Not only to preserve the spectral information of the original (MS) image, but also to maintain the spatial content of the high-resolution SAR image. Two data sets are used to evaluate the proposed fusion algorithm: one of them is Pleiades, Turkey and the other one is Boulder, Colorado, USA. The different fused outputs are compared using different image quality indices. Visual and statistical assessment of the fused outputs displays that the proposed approach has an effective translation from SAR to the optical image. Hence, enhances the SAR image interpretability.