Cloud-Type Classification by Two-Layered Fuzzy Logic

Cloud detection and analysis from satellite images has been a topic of research in many atmospheric and environmental studies; however, it still is a challenging task for many reasons. In this paper, we propose a new method for cloud-type classification using fuzzy logic. Knowing that visible-light images of clouds contain thickness related information, while infrared images haves height-related information, we propose a two-layered fuzzy logic based on the input source to provide us with a relatively clear-cut threshold in classification. Traditional noise-removal methods that use reflection/release characteristics of infrared images often produce false positive cloud areas, such as fog thereby it negatively affecting the classification accuracy. In this study, we used the color information from source images to extract the region of interest while avoiding false positives. The structure of fuzzy inference was also changed, because we utilized three types of source images: visible-light, infrared, and near-infrared images. When a cloud appears in both the visible-light image and the infrared image, the fuzzy membership function has a different form. Therefore we designed two sets of fuzzy inference rules and related classification rules. In our experiment, the proposed method was verified to be efficient and more accurate than the previous fuzzy logic attempt that used infrared image features.