Cloudformer: Supplementary Aggregation Feature and Mask-Classification Network for Cloud Detection

Cloud detection is an important step in the processing of optical satellite remote-sensing data. In recent years, deep learning methods have achieved excellent results in cloud detection tasks. However, most of the current models have difficulties to accurately classify similar objects (e.g., clouds and snow) and to accurately detect clouds that occupy a few pixels in an image. To solve these problems, a cloud-detection framework (Cloudformer) combining CNN and Transformer is being proposed to achieve high-precision cloud detection in optical remote-sensing images. The framework achieves accurate detection of thin and small clouds using a pyramidal structure encoder. It also achieves accurate classification of similar objects using a dual-path decoder structure of CNN and Transformer, reducing the rate of missed detections and false alarms. In addition, since the Transformer model lacks the perception of location information, an asynchronous position-encoding method is being proposed to enhance the position information of the data entering the Transformer module and to optimize the detection results. Cloudformer is experimented on two datasets, AIR-CD and 38-Cloud, and the results show that it has state-of-the-art performance.