International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Vol. 32, Part 7-4-3 W6, Valladolid, Spain, 3-4 June, 1999 
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ADAPTIVE FUSION OF MULTISOURCE RASTER DATA APPLYING FILTER TECHNIQUES 
K. Steinnocher 
Austrian Research Centers, Seibersdorf, Environmental Planning, A-2444 Seibersdorf, klaus.steinnocher@arcs.ac.at 
KEYWORDS: Adaptive Filters, Image Fusion, Image Sharpening, Multiresolution Data, Pre-Segmentation. 
ABSTRACT 
Current remote sensors offer a wide variety of image data with different characteristics in terms of temporal, geometric, radiometric 
and spectral resolution. Although the information content of these images might be partially overlapping, the complementary aspects 
represent a valuable improvement for information extraction. To exploit the entire content of multisensor image data, appropriate 
techniques for image fusion are indispensable. The objective of this paper is to analyse the benefits that can be gained from the 
adaptive image fusion (AIF) method. This method allows the fusion of geometric (spatial) and thematic (spectral) features from 
multisource raster data using adaptive filter algorithms. If applied to multiresolution image data, it will sharpen the low spatial 
resolution image according to object edges found in the higher spatial resolution image. In contrast to substitution methods, such as 
Intensity-Hue-Saturation or Principal-Component Merging, AIF preserves the spectral characteristics of the original low resolution 
image. Thus, it supports applications that rely on subsequent numerical processing of the fused image, such as multispectral 
classification. However, it may also be used in combination with substitution merging methods leading to an improved product for 
visual interpretation. In this case, the AIF will be applied in order to sharpen the original low spatial resolution image before 
performing the substitution. From the various applications that could benefit from AIF, three examples are presented: improving the 
delineation of forest areas, sharpening of agricultural fields and monitoring of urban structures. In all cases, the fusion leads to an 
improved segmentation and a more precise estimation of the area of single land cover objects. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Image fusion in a general sense can be defined as “the 
combination of two or more different images to form a new 
image by using a certain algorithm“ (Van Genderen and Pohl, 
1994). It aims at the integration of all relevant information from 
a number of single images into one new image. From an 
information science point of view, image fusion can be divided 
into three categories depending on the abstraction level of the 
images: pixel, feature and decision based fusion. On the pixel 
level, the fusion is performed on a per-pixel basis. This category 
encompasses the most commonly used techniques (Vrabel 
1996). The second level requires the derivation of image 
features, which are then subject to the fusion process. Decision 
based fusion combines either pre-classified data derived 
separately from each input image or data from multiple sources 
in one classification scheme (Benediktsson and Swain, 1992, 
Schistad Solberg et al. 1994). 
An alternative grouping of image fusion techniques refers to the 
different temporal and sensor characteristics of the input 
imagery. The combination of multitemporal - single sensor 
images represents a valuable basis for detecting changes over 
time (Singh, 1989, Weydahl, 1993, Kressler and Steinnocher, 
1996). Multisensor image fusion combines the information 
acquired by different sensor systems, to benefit from the 
complementary information inherent in the single image data. A 
representative selection of studies on multisensor fusion, 
comprising a wide range of sensors, is given by Pohl and van 
Genderen (1998). Within this group, a focus can be found on the 
fusion of optical and SAR data (Harris et al., 1990, Schistad 
Solberg et al., 1994) and of optical image data with different 
spectral and spatial resolutions (Chavez et al., 1991, Pellemans 
et al., 1993, Shettigara, 1992, Zhukov et al., 1995, Garguet- 
Duport et al., 1996, Yocky, 1996, Vrabel, 1996, Wald et al. 
1997). 
In the remainder of this paper, we will concentrate on the fusion 
of multisensor optical image data with different spatial and 
spectral resolutions. High resolution data sets of this kind are 
typically acquired from single platforms carrying two sensors in 
the optical domain - one providing panchromatic images with a 
high spatial resolution, the other providing multispectral bands 
(in the visible and near infrared spectrum) with a lower spatial 
resolution. Current examples of these platforms are SPOT3/4, 
IRS-1 C/D, and the just recently launched Landsat 7. For the 
near future a number of satellites with similar characteristics are 
announced (Carlson and Patel, 1997). 
The motivation for merging a panchromatic with multispectral 
images lies in the increase of details while preserving the 
multispectral information. The result is an artificial 
multispectral image stack with the spatial resolution of the 
panchromatic image. Common methods to perform this task are 
arithmetic merging procedures or component substitution 
techniques such as the Intensity-Hue-Saturation (IHS) or the 
Principal Component Substitution procedures (Carper et al., 
1990, Chavez et al., 1991, Shettigara, 1992). These techniques 
are valuable for producing improved image maps for visual 
interpretation tasks, as they strongly enhance textural features. 
On the other hand, they can lead to a significant distortion of the 
radiometric properties of the merged images (Vrabel, 1996). 
Pellemans et al. (1993) introduced the radiometric method, 
where the new multispectral bands are derived from a linear 
combination of multispectral and panchromatic radiances. While 
this method keeps the radiometry of the spectral information, it