# You Only Look Twice: Rapid Multi-Scale Object Detection In Satellite Imagery Source: [You Only Look Twice: Rapid Multi-Scale Object Detection In Satellite Imagery]() Collection index: [llms.txt]() Data updated: 2025-10-25T21:02:11.964Z Authors: Adam Van Etten Published: 2018-05-24T05:17:51.000Z ## Abstract Detection of small objects in large swaths of imagery is one of the primary problems in satellite imagery analytics. While object detection in ground-based imagery has benefited from research into new deep learning approaches, transitioning such technology to overhead imagery is nontrivial. Among the challenges is the sheer number of pixels and geographic extent per image: a single DigitalGlobe satellite image encompasses \>64 km2 and over 250 million pixels. Another challenge is that objects of interest are minuscule (often only ~10 pixels in extent), which complicates traditional computer vision techniques. To address these issues, we propose a pipeline (You Only Look Twice, or YOLT) that evaluates satellite images of arbitrary size at a rate of \>0.5 km2/s. The proposed approach can rapidly detect objects of vastly different scales with relatively little training data over multiple sensors. We evaluate large test images at native resolution, and yield scores of F1 \> 0.8 for vehicle localization. We further explore resolution and object size requirements by systematically testing the pipeline at decreasing resolution, and conclude that objects only ~5 pixels in size can still be localized with high confidence. Code is available at https://github.com/CosmiQ/yolt. ## Recorded benchmark results A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage. ## Original sources and implementation [Original paper]() [PDF]()