Hyperspectral remote sensing images (HSIs) have been applied in urban planning, environmental monitoring, and other fields. However, they are susceptible to noise interference, such as Gaussian noise, stripe, and mixed noises, from various factors in the imaging process, which greatly limits their applications. Although previous efforts to improve HSI quality have achieved remarkable results, there are still many challenges to be solved. To avoid the poor generalization ability and improve the stripe removal performance of the network in real scenarios, in this article, we proposed a novel deep learning model (Translution-SNet) for HSI stripe noise removal based on a semisupervised training strategy that applies a convolution and transformer for feature extraction. Moreover, we used an unbiased estimation method to calculate the loss function of the unsupervised part from noisy data without a clean image. The semisupervised method improved the ability of Translution-SNet to deal with various complex stripe noises during stripe removal and strengthened its robustness and generalization ability. Our experimental results showed that Translution-SNet could robustly handle stripe noise of images with different loads and achieve satisfactory results, proving its feasibility and effectiveness. In addition, Translution-SNet showed good generalization ability.

The LuoJia1-01 satellite can acquire high-resolution, high-sensitivity nighttime light data for night remote sensing applications. LuoJia1-01 is equipped with a 4-megapixel CMOS sensor composed of 2048 × 2048 unique detectors that record weak nighttime light on Earth. Owing to minute variations in manufacturing and temporal degradation, each detector’s behavior varies when exposed to uniform radiance, resulting in noticeable detector-level errors in the acquired imagery. Radiometric calibration helps to eliminate these detector-level errors. For the nighttime sensor of LuoJia1-01, it is difficult to directly use the nighttime light data to calibrate the detector-level errors, because at night there is no large-area uniform light source. This paper reports an on-orbit radiometric calibration method that uses daytime data to estimate the relative calibration coefficients for each detector in the LuoJia1-01 nighttime sensor, and uses the calibrated data to correct nighttime data. The image sensor has a high dynamic range (HDR) mode, which is optimized for day/night imaging applications. An HDR image can be constructed using low- and high-gain HDR images captured in HDR mode. Hence, a day-to-night radiometric reference transfer model, which uses daytime uniform calibration to calibrate the detector non-uniformity of the nighttime sensor, is herein built for LuoJia1-01. Owing to the lack of calibration equipment on-board LuoJia1-01, the dark current of the nighttime sensor is calibrated by collecting no-light desert images at new moon. The results show that in HDR mode (1) the root mean square of mean for each detector in low-gain (high-gain) images is better than 0.04 (0.07) in digital number (DN) after dark current correction; (2) the DN relationship between low- and high-gain images conforms to the quadratic polynomial mode; (3) streaking metrics are better than 0.2% after relative calibration; and (4) the nighttime sensor has the same relative correction parameters at different exposure times for the same gain parameters.

Noticeable striping artifacts in collected satellite imagery, caused by the inconsistency of pushbroom sensor detector responses, degrade the image quality. Relative radiometric calibration aims to calibrate inconsistencies in terms of detector responses, thereby eliminating detector-level striping artifacts. Yaw calibration has become the preferred imagery-based calibration method for satellites without on-board calibration equipment, owing to its high accuracy and convenience. However, it often relies on a large uniform field on the Earth’s surface and is a linear calibration method. This method does not consider acquisition-related geometric errors associated with the sensor, resulting in reduced calibration accuracy. In this study, we propose an improved method for yaw calibration, which accounts for the geometric distortion of sensor imaging and does not require a uniform field. A fast geometric-positioning algorithm was used to remove geometric distortion, followed by high-precision extraction of the calibration reference for each sensor’s detector. The dynamic range of the sensor calibration was extended, followed by the calibration of the sensor nonlinear response model. Our results based on Yaogan-25 images suggest the following: 1) the improved method effectively eliminates the “sawtooth” caused by the yaw calibration method without considering the geometric distortion and 2) it outperforms other imagery-based calibration methods with respect to visual destriping effects such that the root-mean-square deviations of the corrected imagery experienced a decrease of 0.65 percentage point, compared with that of the statistical method, and 0.17 percentage point for the yaw calibration. Such improvements will promote high-quality applications of remote-sensing images.

The two video satellites of the second and third batch of Zhuhai-1 microsatellites (referred to as OVS-2A/3A) are operational with their hyperspectral satellites, which improves the data acquisi-tion capability of the Zhuhai-1 remote sensing satellite constellation. Contrary to the linear array push-broom hyperspectral satellites and plane array CCD video satellites, the OVS satellite is equipped with a planar array Bayer pattern sensor, which can obtain single-band grayscale images by push-broom imaging. Additionally, the Bayer color reconstruction algorithm can interpolate sensor data to provide RGB color band information. Therefore, for the Bayer pattern push-broom sensor, the relative calibration method of linear push-broom or array cameras cannot be directly applied. The radiometric calibration of the Bayer pattern push-broom imaging mode has become a matter of concern; therefore, this study developed a radiometric calibration method for the Bayer pattern push-broom sensor of the OVS satellite and verified its effectiveness and accuracy. OVS images were used to perform on-orbit relative radiometric calibration, and the calibration accu-racy, including streaking metrics and root-mean-square error, was better than 1%, meeting the specification requirements for the OVS satellite. Visually, after calibration correction, the streaking and striping noise of the Bayer images was removed, and the radiometric quality of the image was considerably improved, providing a good data basis for subsequent research in remote sensing applications.

The high-resolution nighttime light (NTL) data of the LuoJia1-01 NTL remote sensing satellite has enriched the available data of NTL remote sensing applications. The radiance calibration used as a reference to convert the digital number (DN) recorded by the nighttime sensor into the radiance of the corresponding ground object is the basic premise to the effective application of the NTL data. Owing to the lack of on-board calibration equipment and the absence of an absolute radiometric calibration light source at night, it is difficult for LuoJia1-01 to carry out on-orbit radiance calibration. The moon, as an exoatmospheric stable radiation source, is widely used for the radiometric calibration of remote sensing satellite sensors and to monitor the stability of the visible and near-infrared sensors. This study, based on lunar observation of the LuoJia1-01 NTL sensor, focused on on-orbit radiometric calibration and included monitoring changes in the nighttime sensor radiometric response for nearly a year by using the Robotic Lunar Observatory (ROLO) lunar irradiance model (Version 311 g). The results showed that: (1) the consistency of the radiometric calibration results based on the ROLO model and the laboratory calibration results of LuoJia1-01 exceeded 90%; (2) the nighttime sensor of LuoJia1-01 radiometric response underwent approximately 6% degradation during the observation period of nearly one year (353 days).