Cloud Optical Thickness Retrievals Using Angle Invariant Attention Based Deep Learning Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Tushar, Zahid Hassan, Ademakinwa, Adeleke, Wang, Jianwu, Zhang, Zhibo, Purushotham, Sanjay
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Tushar, Zahid Hassan
Ademakinwa, Adeleke
Wang, Jianwu
Zhang, Zhibo
Purushotham, Sanjay
author_facet Tushar, Zahid Hassan
Ademakinwa, Adeleke
Wang, Jianwu
Zhang, Zhibo
Purushotham, Sanjay
contents Cloud Optical Thickness (COT) is a critical cloud property influencing Earth's climate, weather, and radiation budget. Satellite radiance measurements enable global COT retrieval, but challenges like 3D cloud effects, viewing angles, and atmospheric interference must be addressed to ensure accurate estimation. Traditionally, the Independent Pixel Approximation (IPA) method, which treats individual pixels independently, has been used for COT estimation. However, IPA introduces significant bias due to its simplified assumptions. Recently, deep learning-based models have shown improved performance over IPA but lack robustness, as they are sensitive to variations in radiance intensity, distortions, and cloud shadows. These models also introduce substantial errors in COT estimation under different solar and viewing zenith angles. To address these challenges, we propose a novel angle-invariant, attention-based deep model called Cloud-Attention-Net with Angle Coding (CAAC). Our model leverages attention mechanisms and angle embeddings to account for satellite viewing geometry and 3D radiative transfer effects, enabling more accurate retrieval of COT. Additionally, our multi-angle training strategy ensures angle invariance. Through comprehensive experiments, we demonstrate that CAAC significantly outperforms existing state-of-the-art deep learning models, reducing cloud property retrieval errors by at least a factor of nine.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_24638
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cloud Optical Thickness Retrievals Using Angle Invariant Attention Based Deep Learning Models
Tushar, Zahid Hassan
Ademakinwa, Adeleke
Wang, Jianwu
Zhang, Zhibo
Purushotham, Sanjay
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Artificial Intelligence
Cloud Optical Thickness (COT) is a critical cloud property influencing Earth's climate, weather, and radiation budget. Satellite radiance measurements enable global COT retrieval, but challenges like 3D cloud effects, viewing angles, and atmospheric interference must be addressed to ensure accurate estimation. Traditionally, the Independent Pixel Approximation (IPA) method, which treats individual pixels independently, has been used for COT estimation. However, IPA introduces significant bias due to its simplified assumptions. Recently, deep learning-based models have shown improved performance over IPA but lack robustness, as they are sensitive to variations in radiance intensity, distortions, and cloud shadows. These models also introduce substantial errors in COT estimation under different solar and viewing zenith angles. To address these challenges, we propose a novel angle-invariant, attention-based deep model called Cloud-Attention-Net with Angle Coding (CAAC). Our model leverages attention mechanisms and angle embeddings to account for satellite viewing geometry and 3D radiative transfer effects, enabling more accurate retrieval of COT. Additionally, our multi-angle training strategy ensures angle invariance. Through comprehensive experiments, we demonstrate that CAAC significantly outperforms existing state-of-the-art deep learning models, reducing cloud property retrieval errors by at least a factor of nine.
title Cloud Optical Thickness Retrievals Using Angle Invariant Attention Based Deep Learning Models
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.24638