Enhancing the Spatial Resolution of Sentinel-2 Images Through Super-Resolution Using Transformer-Based Deep-Learning Models

Satellite imagery plays a pivotal role in environmental monitoring, urban planning, and national security. However, spatial resolution limitations of current satellite sensors restrict the clarity and usability of captured images. This study introduces a novel transformer-based deep-learning model t...

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Main Authors: Alireza Sharifi, Mohammad Mahdi Safari
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10829708/
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author Alireza Sharifi
Mohammad Mahdi Safari
author_facet Alireza Sharifi
Mohammad Mahdi Safari
author_sort Alireza Sharifi
collection DOAJ
description Satellite imagery plays a pivotal role in environmental monitoring, urban planning, and national security. However, spatial resolution limitations of current satellite sensors restrict the clarity and usability of captured images. This study introduces a novel transformer-based deep-learning model to enhance the spatial resolution of Sentinel-2 images. The proposed architecture leverages multihead attention and integrated spatial and channel attention mechanisms to effectively extract and reconstruct fine details from low-resolution inputs. The model's performance was evaluated on the Sentinel-2 dataset, along with benchmark datasets (AID and UC-Merced), and compared against state-of-the-art methods, including ResNet, Swin Transformer, and ViT. Experimental results demonstrate superior performance, achieving a peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of 33.52 dB, structural similarity index (SSIM) of 0.862, and signal-to-reconstruction error ratio (SRE) of 36.7 dB on Sentinel-2 RGB bands. The proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art approaches, including ResNet, Swin Transformer, and ViT, on benchmark datasets (Sentinel-2, AID, and UC-Merced). The results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves superior performance in terms of PSNR, SSIM, and SRE metrics, highlighting its effectiveness in revealing finer spatial details and improving image quality for practical remote sensing applications.
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institution Kabale University
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publishDate 2025-01-01
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series IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
spelling doaj-art-1048cb59268f49d295ff817c891fca2f2025-02-07T00:00:33ZengIEEEIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing1939-14042151-15352025-01-01184805482010.1109/JSTARS.2025.352626010829708Enhancing the Spatial Resolution of Sentinel-2 Images Through Super-Resolution Using Transformer-Based Deep-Learning ModelsAlireza Sharifi0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7110-7516Mohammad Mahdi Safari1https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5240-8466Department of Surveying Engineering, Faculty of Civil, Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, IranDepartment of Geoinformatics Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, ItalySatellite imagery plays a pivotal role in environmental monitoring, urban planning, and national security. However, spatial resolution limitations of current satellite sensors restrict the clarity and usability of captured images. This study introduces a novel transformer-based deep-learning model to enhance the spatial resolution of Sentinel-2 images. The proposed architecture leverages multihead attention and integrated spatial and channel attention mechanisms to effectively extract and reconstruct fine details from low-resolution inputs. The model's performance was evaluated on the Sentinel-2 dataset, along with benchmark datasets (AID and UC-Merced), and compared against state-of-the-art methods, including ResNet, Swin Transformer, and ViT. Experimental results demonstrate superior performance, achieving a peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of 33.52 dB, structural similarity index (SSIM) of 0.862, and signal-to-reconstruction error ratio (SRE) of 36.7 dB on Sentinel-2 RGB bands. The proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art approaches, including ResNet, Swin Transformer, and ViT, on benchmark datasets (Sentinel-2, AID, and UC-Merced). The results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves superior performance in terms of PSNR, SSIM, and SRE metrics, highlighting its effectiveness in revealing finer spatial details and improving image quality for practical remote sensing applications.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10829708/Deep learningsatellite imagessuper-resolutiontransformer
spellingShingle Alireza Sharifi
Mohammad Mahdi Safari
Enhancing the Spatial Resolution of Sentinel-2 Images Through Super-Resolution Using Transformer-Based Deep-Learning Models
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
Deep learning
satellite images
super-resolution
transformer
title Enhancing the Spatial Resolution of Sentinel-2 Images Through Super-Resolution Using Transformer-Based Deep-Learning Models
title_full Enhancing the Spatial Resolution of Sentinel-2 Images Through Super-Resolution Using Transformer-Based Deep-Learning Models
title_fullStr Enhancing the Spatial Resolution of Sentinel-2 Images Through Super-Resolution Using Transformer-Based Deep-Learning Models
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing the Spatial Resolution of Sentinel-2 Images Through Super-Resolution Using Transformer-Based Deep-Learning Models
title_short Enhancing the Spatial Resolution of Sentinel-2 Images Through Super-Resolution Using Transformer-Based Deep-Learning Models
title_sort enhancing the spatial resolution of sentinel 2 images through super resolution using transformer based deep learning models
topic Deep learning
satellite images
super-resolution
transformer
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10829708/
work_keys_str_mv AT alirezasharifi enhancingthespatialresolutionofsentinel2imagesthroughsuperresolutionusingtransformerbaseddeeplearningmodels
AT mohammadmahdisafari enhancingthespatialresolutionofsentinel2imagesthroughsuperresolutionusingtransformerbaseddeeplearningmodels