Transfer Learning in the Classification of Satellite Images Showing Amazon Rainforest

Abstract

Abstract. In recent years, we have been dealing with the dynamic technological progress of the space sector, which allows for the observation of the Earth with better temporal, spatial and spectral resolution. The increasing availability of satellite data has contributed to the development of data processing algorithms. Thanks to the use of digital image processing methods and deep neural networks, it is possible to perform automatic image classification, segmentation or detection and recognition of objects on the images. This article presents the methodology that allows to accelerate the classification process of satellite images representing the Amazon rainforest based on the Transfer Learning method. Additionally, the influence of the choice of optimization, i.e. the network weight estimation strategy, on the classification of objects was checked. In order to verify the method, an additional raster image classifier was created on the basis of Lidar data. Research shows that the transfer learning method allows the preparation of an image classifier based on a small database (less than 100 images representing one class). The network training process can be shortened to a few minutes.