Model Specialization for the Use of ESRGAN on Satellite and Airborne Imagery

Abstract

Training a deep learning model requires highly variable data to permit reasonable generalization. If the variability in the data about to be processed is low, the interest in obtaining this generalization seems limited. Yet, it could prove interesting to specialize the model with respect to a particular theme. The use of enhanced super-resolution generative adversarial networks (ERSGAN), a specific type of deep learning architecture, allows the spatial resolution of remote sensing images to be increased by “hallucinating” non-existent details. In this study, we show that ESRGAN create better quality images when trained on thematically classified images than when trained on a wide variety of examples. All things being equal, we further show that the algorithm performs better on some themes than it does on others. Texture analysis shows that these performances are correlated with the inverse difference moment and entropy of the images.