PolSAR image classification using shallow to deep feature fusion network with complex valued attention

Abstract Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) images encompass valuable information that can facilitate extensive land cover interpretation and generate diverse output products. Extracting meaningful features from PolSAR data poses challenges distinct from those encountered in optical imag...

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Main Authors: Mohammed Q. Alkhatib, M. Sami Zitouni, Mina Al-Saad, Nour Aburaed, Hussain Al-Ahmad
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-07-01
Series:Scientific Reports
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-10475-3
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author Mohammed Q. Alkhatib
M. Sami Zitouni
Mina Al-Saad
Nour Aburaed
Hussain Al-Ahmad
author_facet Mohammed Q. Alkhatib
M. Sami Zitouni
Mina Al-Saad
Nour Aburaed
Hussain Al-Ahmad
author_sort Mohammed Q. Alkhatib
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) images encompass valuable information that can facilitate extensive land cover interpretation and generate diverse output products. Extracting meaningful features from PolSAR data poses challenges distinct from those encountered in optical imagery. Deep Learning (DL) methods offer effective solutions for overcoming these challenges in PolSAR feature extraction. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) play a crucial role in capturing PolSAR image characteristics by exploiting kernel capabilities to consider local information and the complex-valued nature of PolSAR data. In this study, a novel three-branch fusion of Complex-Valued CNN named (CV-ASDF2Net) is proposed for PolSAR image classification. To validate the performance of the proposed method, classification results are compared against multiple state-of-the-art approaches using the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) datasets of Flevoland, San Francisco, and ESAR Oberpfaffenhofen dataset. Moreover, quantitative and qualitative evaluation measures are conducted to assess the classification performance. The results indicate that the proposed approach achieves notable improvements in Overall Accuracy (OA), with enhancements of 1.30% and 0.80% for the AIRSAR datasets, and 0.50% for the ESAR dataset. However, the most remarkable performance of the CV-ASDF2Net model is observed with the Flevoland dataset; the model achieves an impressive OA of 96.01% with only a 1% sampling ratio. The source code is available at: https://github.com/mqalkhatib/CV-ASDF2Net
format Article
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issn 2045-2322
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publishDate 2025-07-01
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spelling doaj-art-66f9b439cd42491bb39648cb92859dc42025-08-20T03:45:49ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-07-0115111910.1038/s41598-025-10475-3PolSAR image classification using shallow to deep feature fusion network with complex valued attentionMohammed Q. Alkhatib0M. Sami Zitouni1Mina Al-Saad2Nour Aburaed3Hussain Al-Ahmad4College of Engineering and IT, University of DubaiCollege of Engineering and IT, University of DubaiCollege of Engineering and IT, University of DubaiCollege of Engineering and IT, University of DubaiCollege of Engineering and IT, University of DubaiAbstract Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) images encompass valuable information that can facilitate extensive land cover interpretation and generate diverse output products. Extracting meaningful features from PolSAR data poses challenges distinct from those encountered in optical imagery. Deep Learning (DL) methods offer effective solutions for overcoming these challenges in PolSAR feature extraction. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) play a crucial role in capturing PolSAR image characteristics by exploiting kernel capabilities to consider local information and the complex-valued nature of PolSAR data. In this study, a novel three-branch fusion of Complex-Valued CNN named (CV-ASDF2Net) is proposed for PolSAR image classification. To validate the performance of the proposed method, classification results are compared against multiple state-of-the-art approaches using the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) datasets of Flevoland, San Francisco, and ESAR Oberpfaffenhofen dataset. Moreover, quantitative and qualitative evaluation measures are conducted to assess the classification performance. The results indicate that the proposed approach achieves notable improvements in Overall Accuracy (OA), with enhancements of 1.30% and 0.80% for the AIRSAR datasets, and 0.50% for the ESAR dataset. However, the most remarkable performance of the CV-ASDF2Net model is observed with the Flevoland dataset; the model achieves an impressive OA of 96.01% with only a 1% sampling ratio. The source code is available at: https://github.com/mqalkhatib/CV-ASDF2Nethttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-10475-3Complex-valued attention mechanism (CV-AM)Complex-valued convolutional neural network (CV-CNN)Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) image classificationFeature fusion
spellingShingle Mohammed Q. Alkhatib
M. Sami Zitouni
Mina Al-Saad
Nour Aburaed
Hussain Al-Ahmad
PolSAR image classification using shallow to deep feature fusion network with complex valued attention
Scientific Reports
Complex-valued attention mechanism (CV-AM)
Complex-valued convolutional neural network (CV-CNN)
Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) image classification
Feature fusion
title PolSAR image classification using shallow to deep feature fusion network with complex valued attention
title_full PolSAR image classification using shallow to deep feature fusion network with complex valued attention
title_fullStr PolSAR image classification using shallow to deep feature fusion network with complex valued attention
title_full_unstemmed PolSAR image classification using shallow to deep feature fusion network with complex valued attention
title_short PolSAR image classification using shallow to deep feature fusion network with complex valued attention
title_sort polsar image classification using shallow to deep feature fusion network with complex valued attention
topic Complex-valued attention mechanism (CV-AM)
Complex-valued convolutional neural network (CV-CNN)
Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) image classification
Feature fusion
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-10475-3
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