De‐shadowing of satellite/airborne imagery

A de‐shadowing technique is presented for multispectral and hyperspectral imagery over land acquired by satellite/airborne sensors. The method requires a channel in the visible and at least one spectral band in the near‐infrared (0.8–1µm) region, but performs much better if bands in the short‐wave infrared region (around 1.6 and 2.2µm) are available as well. The algorithm consists of these major components: (i) calculation of the covariance matrix and zero‐reflectance matched filter vector, (ii) derivation of the unscaled and scaled shadow function, (iii) histogram thresholding of the unscaled shadow function to define the core shadow areas, (iv) region growing to include the surroundings of the core shadow areas for a smooth shadow/clear transition, and (v) de‐shadowing of the pixels in the final shadow mask. The critical parameters of the method are discussed. Example images from different climates and landscapes are presented to demonstrate the successful performance of the shadow removal process over land surfaces.