TITLE:
ECD-Net: An Effective Cloud Detection Network for Remote Sensing Images
AUTHORS:
Hui Gao, Xianjun Du
KEYWORDS:
Deep Learning, Remote Sensing, Cloud Detection, MSDA, MHSA
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Computer and Communications,
Vol.13 No.1,
January
17,
2025
ABSTRACT: Cloud detection is a critical preprocessing step in remote sensing image processing, as the presence of clouds significantly affects the accuracy of remote sensing data and limits its applicability across various domains. This study presents an enhanced cloud detection method based on the U-Net architecture, designed to address the challenges of multi-scale cloud features and long-range dependencies inherent in remote sensing imagery. A Multi-Scale Dilated Attention (MSDA) module is introduced to effectively integrate multi-scale information and model long-range dependencies across different scales, enhancing the model’s ability to detect clouds of varying sizes. Additionally, a Multi-Head Self-Attention (MHSA) mechanism is incorporated to improve the model’s capacity for capturing finer details, particularly in distinguishing thin clouds from surface features. A multi-path supervision mechanism is also devised to ensure the model learns cloud features at multiple scales, further boosting the accuracy and robustness of cloud mask generation. Experimental results demonstrate that the enhanced model achieves superior performance compared to other benchmarked methods in complex scenarios. It significantly improves cloud detection accuracy, highlighting its strong potential for practical applications in cloud detection tasks.