skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: An improved fuzzy logic segmentation of sea ice, clouds, and ocean in remotely sensed Arctic imagery

Journal Article · · Remote Sensing of Environment
;  [1]
  1. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA (United States). Digital Image Analysis Lab.

The accurate segmentation of sea ice from cloud and from cloud-free ocean in polar AVHRR imagery is important for many scientific applications (e.g., sea ice-albedo feedback mechanisms, heat exchange between ocean and atmosphere in polar regions; studies of the stability of surface water in polar regions). Unfortunately, it is a difficult task complicated by the common visible reflectance characteristics of sea ice and cloud. Moreover, AVHRR Channel 3 data historically have been contaminated by highly variable sensor noise which generally has hampered their use in the classification of polar scenes. Likewise, polar scenes often contain pixels with mixed classes (e.g., sea ice and cloud). This article uses a combination of fuzzy logic classification methods, noise reduction in AVHRR Channel 3 data using Wiener filtering methods and a physically motivated rule base which makes effective use of the Wiener filtered Channel 3 data to more accurately segment polar imagery. The new method`s improved classification skill compared to more traditional methods, as well as its regional independence, is demonstrated. The algorithm is computationally efficient and hence is suitable for analyzing the large volumes of polar imagery needed in many global change studies.

OSTI ID:
201145
Journal Information:
Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 54, Issue 3; Other Information: PBD: Dec 1995
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Automatic cloud detection applied to NOAA-11/AVHRR imagery
Journal Article · Wed Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · Remote Sensing of Environment; (United States) · OSTI ID:201145

Effective Cloud Detection and Segmentation Using a Gradient-Based Algorithm for Satellite Imagery: Application to Improve PERSIANN-CCS
Journal Article · Wed May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Journal of Hydrometeorology · OSTI ID:201145

Cloud cover analysis with Arctic advanced very high resolution radiometer data. 2. Classification with spectral and textural measures
Journal Article · Sun May 20 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States) · OSTI ID:201145