Modified pix2pixHD for Enhancing Spatial Resolution of Image for Conversion from SAR Images to Optical Images in Application of Landslide Area Detection

A method for the conversion of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images to optical images can be useful for disaster area detection for the following two reasons: (1) it is easier to detect disaster areas with optical images rather than with SAR images; (2) disasters may occur at night and in rainy and...

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Main Author: Kohei Arai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-02-01
Series:Information
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/16/3/163
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author Kohei Arai
author_facet Kohei Arai
author_sort Kohei Arai
collection DOAJ
description A method for the conversion of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images to optical images can be useful for disaster area detection for the following two reasons: (1) it is easier to detect disaster areas with optical images rather than with SAR images; (2) disasters may occur at night and in rainy and cloudy conditions (SAR images can be acquired in daytime and nighttime as well as all weather conditions). Therefore, it becomes easier to detect disaster areas with optical images converted from SAR images. Using GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks), it is possible to convert SAR images to optical images. In particular, pix2pix and pix2pixHD are used for this purpose. The author proposed spatial resolution-maintained pix2pixHD previously. In this paper, a new method of modifying pix2pixHD with a spatial attention mechanism and an edge enhancement mechanism with a Canny filter in the loss function is proposed, and the proposed method is compared to the pix2pixHD with a spatial attention mechanism and pix2pixHD as well as pix2pix. All of these four methods are compared in terms of the spatial resolution (frequency components) of converted optical images. By experiment, the superiority of the modified pix2pixHD with spatial attention and edge enhancement mechanisms is confirmed for disaster area detection (landslide area detection).
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spelling doaj-art-58aff9300a044d0ca9ca8ce28cb58c282025-08-20T01:48:56ZengMDPI AGInformation2078-24892025-02-0116316310.3390/info16030163Modified pix2pixHD for Enhancing Spatial Resolution of Image for Conversion from SAR Images to Optical Images in Application of Landslide Area DetectionKohei Arai0Department of Information Science, Science and Engineering Faculty, Saga University, Saga 840-8502, JapanA method for the conversion of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images to optical images can be useful for disaster area detection for the following two reasons: (1) it is easier to detect disaster areas with optical images rather than with SAR images; (2) disasters may occur at night and in rainy and cloudy conditions (SAR images can be acquired in daytime and nighttime as well as all weather conditions). Therefore, it becomes easier to detect disaster areas with optical images converted from SAR images. Using GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks), it is possible to convert SAR images to optical images. In particular, pix2pix and pix2pixHD are used for this purpose. The author proposed spatial resolution-maintained pix2pixHD previously. In this paper, a new method of modifying pix2pixHD with a spatial attention mechanism and an edge enhancement mechanism with a Canny filter in the loss function is proposed, and the proposed method is compared to the pix2pixHD with a spatial attention mechanism and pix2pixHD as well as pix2pix. All of these four methods are compared in terms of the spatial resolution (frequency components) of converted optical images. By experiment, the superiority of the modified pix2pixHD with spatial attention and edge enhancement mechanisms is confirmed for disaster area detection (landslide area detection).https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/16/3/163synthetic aperture radardisaster area detectionpix2pixpix2pixHDpix2pixHD+landslide area detection
spellingShingle Kohei Arai
Modified pix2pixHD for Enhancing Spatial Resolution of Image for Conversion from SAR Images to Optical Images in Application of Landslide Area Detection
Information
synthetic aperture radar
disaster area detection
pix2pix
pix2pixHD
pix2pixHD+
landslide area detection
title Modified pix2pixHD for Enhancing Spatial Resolution of Image for Conversion from SAR Images to Optical Images in Application of Landslide Area Detection
title_full Modified pix2pixHD for Enhancing Spatial Resolution of Image for Conversion from SAR Images to Optical Images in Application of Landslide Area Detection
title_fullStr Modified pix2pixHD for Enhancing Spatial Resolution of Image for Conversion from SAR Images to Optical Images in Application of Landslide Area Detection
title_full_unstemmed Modified pix2pixHD for Enhancing Spatial Resolution of Image for Conversion from SAR Images to Optical Images in Application of Landslide Area Detection
title_short Modified pix2pixHD for Enhancing Spatial Resolution of Image for Conversion from SAR Images to Optical Images in Application of Landslide Area Detection
title_sort modified pix2pixhd for enhancing spatial resolution of image for conversion from sar images to optical images in application of landslide area detection
topic synthetic aperture radar
disaster area detection
pix2pix
pix2pixHD
pix2pixHD+
landslide area detection
url https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/16/3/163
work_keys_str_mv AT koheiarai modifiedpix2pixhdforenhancingspatialresolutionofimageforconversionfromsarimagestoopticalimagesinapplicationoflandslideareadetection