Convolutional models have provided outstanding performance in the analysis of hyperspectral images (HSIs). These architectures are carefully designed to extract intricate information from non-linear features for classification tasks. Notwithstanding their results, model architectures are manually engineered and further optimized for generalized feature extraction. In general terms, deep architectures are time consuming for complex scenarios since they require fine tuning. Neural architecture search (NAS) has emerged as a suitable approach to tackle this shortcoming. In parallel, modern attention-based methods have boosted the recognition of sophisticated features. The search for optimal neural architectures combined with attention procedures motivates the development of this work. This paper develops a new method to automatically design and optimize convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for HSI classification using channel-based attention mechanisms. Specifically, one-dimensional (1D) and spectral-spatial (3D) classifiers are considered to handle the large amount of information contained in HSIs from different perspectives. Furthermore, the proposed AAtt-CNN method meets the requirement to lower the large computational overheads associated with architectural search. It is compared with current state-of-the-art (SOTA) classifiers. Our experiments, conducted using a wide range of HSI images, demonstrate that AAtt-CNN succeeds in finding optimal architectures for classification, leading to SOTA results.

The profound impact of deep learning and particularly of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in automatic image processing has been decisive for the progress and evolution of remote sensing (RS) hyperspectral imaging (HSI) processing. Indeed, CNNs have stated themselves as the current state of the art, reaching unparalleled results in HSI classification. However, most CNNs were designed for RGB images, and their direct application to HSI data analysis could lead to nonoptimal solutions. Moreover, CNNs perform classification based on the identification of specific features, neglecting the spatial relationships between different features (i.e., their arrangement) due to pooling techniques. The capsule network (CapsNet) architecture is an attempt to overcome this drawback by nesting several neural layers within a capsule, connected by dynamic routing, both to identify not only the presence of a feature but also its instantiation parameters and to learn the relationships between different features. Although this mechanism improves the data representations, enhancing the classification of HSI data, it still acts as a black box, without control of the most relevant features for classification purposes. Indeed, important features could be discriminated against. In this article, a new multiple attention-guided CapsNet is proposed to improve feature processing for RS-HSIs’ classification, both to improve computational efficiency (in terms of parameters) and increase accuracy. Hence, the most representative visual parts of the images are identified using a detailed feature extractor coupled with attention mechanisms. Extensive experimental results have been obtained on five real datasets, demonstrating the great potential of the proposed method compared to other state-of-the-art classifiers.

As a newly emerging technology, deep learning (DL) is a very promising field in big data applications. Remote sensing often involves huge data volumes obtained daily by numerous in-orbit satellites. This makes it a perfect target area for data-driven applications. Nowadays, technological advances in terms of software and hardware have a noticeable impact on Earth observation applications, more specifically in remote sensing techniques and procedures, allowing for the acquisition of data sets with greater quality at higher acquisition ratios. This results in the collection of huge amounts of remotely sensed data, characterized by their large spatial resolution (in terms of the number of pixels per scene), and very high spectral dimensionality, with hundreds or even thousands of spectral bands. As a result, remote sensing instruments on spaceborne and airborne platforms are now generating data cubes with extremely high dimensionality, imposing several restrictions in terms of both processing runtimes and storage capacity. In this article, we provide a comprehensive review of the state of the art in DL for remote sensing data interpretation, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the most widely used techniques in the literature, as well as an exhaustive description of their parallel and distributed implementations (with a particular focus on those conducted using cloud computing systems). We also provide quantitative results, offering an assessment of a DL technique in a specific case study (source code available: https://github.com/mhaut/cloud-dnn-HSI). This article concludes with some remarks and hints about future challenges in the application of DL techniques to distributed remote sensing data interpretation problems. We emphasize the role of the cloud in providing a powerful architecture that is now able to manage vast amounts of remotely sensed data due to its implementation simplicity, low cost, and high efficiency compared to other parallel and distributed architectures, such as grid computing or dedicated clusters.

Land-cover classification is an important topic for remotely sensed hyperspectral (HS) data exploitation. In this regard, HS classifiers have to face important challenges, such as the high spectral redundancy, as well as noise, present in the data, and the fact that obtaining accurate labeled training data for supervised classification is expensive and time-consuming. As a result, the availability of large amounts of training samples, needed to alleviate the so-called Hughes phenomenon, is often unfeasible in practice. The class-imbalance problem, which results from the uneven distribution of labeled samples per class, is also a very challenging factor for HS classifiers. In this paper, a comprehensive review of oversampling techniques is provided, which mitigate the aforementioned issues by generating new samples for the minority classes. More specifically, this paper pursues a two-fold objective. Firstly, it reviews the most relevant oversampling methods that can be adopted according to the nature of HS data. Secondly, it provides a comprehensive experimental study and comparison, which are useful to derive practical conclusions about the performance of oversampling techniques in different HS image-based applications. The source will be made available publicly at https://github.com/mhaut/imbalance-review .