Remote Sensing Image Classification with the SEN12MS Dataset

Image classification is one of the main drivers of the rapid developments in deep learning with convolutional neural networks for computer vision. So is the analogous task of scene classification in remote sensing. However, in contrast to the computer vision community that has long been using well-established, large-scale standard datasets to train and benchmark high-capacity models, the remote sensing community still largely relies on relatively small and often application-dependend datasets, thus lacking comparability. With this letter, we present a classification-oriented conversion of the SEN12MS dataset. Using that, we provide results for several baseline models based on two standard CNN architectures and different input data configurations. Our results support the benchmarking of remote sensing image classification and provide insights to the benefit of multi-spectral data and multi-sensor data fusion over conventional RGB imagery.

Michael Schmitt, Yu-Lun Wu · 2021