ISSN 2070-7401 (Print), ISSN 2411-0280 (Online)
Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa
CURRENT PROBLEMS IN REMOTE SENSING OF THE EARTH FROM SPACE

  

Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2020, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 240-251

Nighttime cloud classification by VIIRS satellite data

A.V. Skorokhodov 1 
1 Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics SB RAS, Tomsk, Russia
Accepted: 13.04.2020
DOI: 10.21046/2070-7401-2020-17-3-240-251
The analysis results of VIIRS satellite data obtained at nighttime for cloud classification are presented. We used visible light spectrum images of the day/night band of this sensor. This made it possible to use the results of texture analysis for images to describe clouds. The boundary conditions for the applicability of day/night images to solve the problem of cloud type recognition are determined. The nighttime cloud classification is presented taking into account the capabilities of satellite device. An algorithm for cloud type recognition based on the use of a probabilistic neural network is proposed. The software is based on the technology of parallel computing by general-purpose graphic processors. The search results of informative features for clouds based on the GRAD-II truncated enumeration method are presented. The nighttime cloud classification results based on the test sample and expert evaluation are discussed. We used satellite images obtained under various sensing conditions. The classification results of individual cloud types at nighttime by VIIRS and daytime by MODIS are discussed.
Keywords: cloud classification, nighttime, satellite data, texture features, cloud properties, day/night images, VIIRS
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