Spectral consistent satellite image fusion: Using a high resolution panchromatic and low resolution multi-spectral images

Several widely used methods have been proposed for fusing high resolution panchromatic data and lower resolution multi-channel data. However, many of these methods fail to maintain spectral consistency of the fused high resolution image, which is of high importance to many of the applications based on satellite data. Additionally, most conventional methods are loosely connected to the image forming physics of the satellite image, giving these methods an ad hoc feel. In this paper a new method for image fusion of satellite images is proposed. The method is based on the properties of imaging physics in a statistically meaningful way. Based on our analysis, it is seen, that spectral consistency is a direct consequence of imaging physics and hence guaranteed by our method. This is achieved while exploiting the high resolution single-channel data in what can be seen as a statistical optimal way. This yields a framework to which additional constraints can be added in a straight forward manner. In this work we have exploited this framework and added some simple optimization terms for smoothing the fused image.