Robust Registration of Multispectral Satellite Images Based on Structural and Geometrical Similarity

Abstract

Accurate registration of multispectral satellite images is a challenging task due to the significant and nonlinear radiometric differences between these data. To address this problem, this letter explores the strategy of geometrical similarity between triplets of feature points, and it is combined with the structural similarity between images in a feature-based image registration framework. The underlying principle is that the structural and geometrical similarities generally preserve across the images being registered. In this feature-based image registration framework, a set of control points (CPs) are first detected. Then, the geometric similarity between triplets of CPs is defined, followed by a ranking operation of these triplets of CPs. The highly ranked triplets are used to estimate a spatial transformation between images. Finally, initial matches obtained by a benchmark registration technique are refined by the estimated transformation. The experimental results demonstrate the great effectiveness of the proposed technique for registering multispectral satellite images.