AutoCloud+, a “Universal” Physical and Statistical Model-Based 2D Spatial Topology-Preserving Software Toolbox for Cloud/Cloud-Shadow Detection in Multi-Sensor Single-Date Earth Observation Multi-Spectral Imagery Eligible for Systematic ESA EO Level 2 Product Generation
The European Space Agency (ESA) defines as Earth observation (EO) Level 2 information product a single-date multi-spectral (MS) image corrected for atmospheric, adjacency and topographic effects, stacked with its data-derived scene classification map (SCM), whose thematic map legend includes quality layers cloud and cloud-shadow. ESA EO Level 2 product generation is an inherently ill-posed computer vision (CV) problem never accomplished to date in operating mode by any EO data provider at the ground segment. Herein, it is considered: (I) necessary not sufficient pre-condition for the yet-unaccomplished dependent problems of semantic content-based image retrieval (SCBIR) and semantics-enabled information/knowledge discovery (SEIKD) in multi-source EO big data cubes. (II) Synonym of EO Analysis Ready Data (ARD) format. (III) Equivalent to a horizontal policy for background developments in Space Economy 4.0. In compliance with the GEO-CEOS Quality Assurance Framework for EO Calibration/Validation guidelines, to contribute toward filling an analytic and pragmatic information gap from multi-sensor EO big data to timely, comprehensive and operational EO value-adding information products and services, this work presents an innovative AutoCloud+ CV software toolbox for cloud and cloud-shadow quality layer detection in ESA EO Level 2 product. In vision, spatial information dominates color information. Inspired by this true-fact, the inherently ill-posed AutoCloud+ CV software was conditioned, designed and implemented to be “universal”, meaning fully automated (no human-machine interaction is required), near real-time, robust to changes in input data and scalable to changes in MS imaging sensor’s spatial and spectral resolution specifications.