Bayesian decision based fusion algorithm for remote sensing images

Abstract Remote sensing image fusion is dedicated to obtain a high-resolution multispectral (HRMS) image without spatial or spectral distortion compared to the single source image. In this paper, a novel fusion algorithm based on Bayesian estimation for remote sensing images is proposed from the new perspective of risk decisions. In this study, an observation model based on Bayesian estimation for remote sensing image fusion is constructed. Three categories of probabilities including prior, conditional and posterior probabilities are calculated after an intensity-hue-saturation (IHS) transformation is applied to the original low-resolution MS image. To obtain the desired HRMS image, with the corrected posterior probability, a fusion rule based on Bayesian decisions is designed to estimate which pixels to select from the panchromatic (PAN) image and the intensity component of the MS image. The selected pixels constitute a new component that will participate in an IHS inverse transformation to yield the fused image. Extensive experiments were performed on the Pleiades, WorldView-3, and IKONOS datasets, and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.