Techniques and Applications of Optical and SAR Imagery Fusion

Background With increasing amount of data collected from various airborne and satellite sensors,image and data fusion techniques are gaining more and more importance. By means of integration of complementary data sets, more and better information about an object or a study area can be obtained than can be derived from single sensor data alone. Optical sensors acquire the reflected energy from sunlight reaching the ground in the visible and near-infrared spectrum. Despite multi-spectral data presents rich spectral information of the observed objects, it is significantly influenced by the atmospheric conditions and the reflectivity of the observed object, e.g. clouds, fog, smoke or darkness. Different from optical sensors, SAR sensor has the all-weather capability. SAR data can present rich structural and texture information, and is very sensitive to the shape, orientation, roughness and moisture content of the illuminated ground objects. Therefore, the combination of different characteristics of optical imagery and SAR data by using fusion techniques can give a more complete view of the observed objects, provide increased interpretation capabilities and more reliable results. Objectives This international symposium will provide a forum for international leading scientists and young researchers to present their latest research developments, exchange their research ideas and share their experience in techniques and applications of optical and SAR imagery fusion. There will be technical sessions, poster sessions, and social events. You are cordially invited to contribute to this event by delivering a paper and by attending the symposium.