Infinite High Fidelity Thin Cloud Synthesis by Coupling Scattering Law and Generative Adversarial Network

There is no "cloudy & cloud-free" paired images with totally identical surface information under the same spatial and temporal condition in reality, which limits the development of supervised deep learning methods in the field of cloud removal and detection. In this regard, a high-fidelity thin cloud synthetic method is proposed, which is more challenging than the synthesis of thick clouds. This method combines physical model and data-driven methods. The expression of scattering laws at the pixel level is extended to the channel level to synthesize multi-channel cloud from cirrus band with controlled cloud thickness. Besides, spatial and spectral features are learned from real data using generative adversarial networks and transformed to synthetic data. Based on it, a dataset containing infinite number of "cloudy & cloud-free" pairs can be constructed. Experimental results show that the proposed method has the best visual effect with highest quantitative evaluations compared with current methods.