Multisensor image fusion guidelines in remote sensing

Remote sensing delivers multimodal and –temporal data from the Earth’s surface. In order to cope with these multidimensional data sources and to make the most of them, image fusion is a valuable tool. It has developed over the past few decades into a usable image processing technique for extracting information of higher quality and reliability. As more sensors and advanced image fusion techniques have become available, researchers have conducted a vast amount of successful studies using image fusion. However, the definition of an appropriate workflow prior to processing the imagery requires knowledge in all related fields – i.e. remote sensing, image fusion and the desired image exploitation processing. From the findings of this research it can be seen that the choice of the appropriate technique, as well as the fine-tuning of the individual parameters of this technique, is crucial. There is still a lack of strategic guidelines due to the complexity and variability of data selection, processing techniques and applications. This paper gives an overview on the state-of-the-art in remote sensing image fusion including sensors and applications. Putting research results in image fusion from the past 15 years into a context provides a new view on the subject and helps other researchers to build their innovation on these findings. Recommendations of experts help to understand further needs to achieve feasible strategies in remote sensing image fusion.