The model is the message: Lightweight convolutional autoencoders applied to noisy imaging data for planetary science and astrobiology

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteur principal: Scharf, Caleb
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Scharf, Caleb
author_facet Scharf, Caleb
contents The application of convolutional autoencoder deep learning to imaging data for planetary science and astrobiological use is briefly reviewed and explored with a focus on the need to understand algorithmic rationale, process, and results when machine learning is utilized. Successful autoencoders train to build a model that captures the features of data in a dimensionally reduced form (the latent representation) that can then be used to recreate the original input. One application is the reconstruction of incomplete or noisy data. Here a baseline, lightweight convolutional autoencoder is used to examine the utility for planetary image reconstruction or inpainting in situations where there is destructive random noise (i.e., either luminance noise with zero returned data in some image pixels, or color noise with random additive levels across pixel channels). It is shown that, in certain use cases, multi-color image reconstruction can be usefully applied even with extensive random destructive noise with 90% areal coverage and higher. This capability is discussed in the context of intentional masking to reduce data bandwidth, or situations with low-illumination levels and other factors that obscure image data (e.g., sensor degradation or atmospheric conditions). It is further suggested that for some scientific use cases the model latent space and representations have more utility than large raw imaging datasets.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_11400
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The model is the message: Lightweight convolutional autoencoders applied to noisy imaging data for planetary science and astrobiology
Scharf, Caleb
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Machine Learning
The application of convolutional autoencoder deep learning to imaging data for planetary science and astrobiological use is briefly reviewed and explored with a focus on the need to understand algorithmic rationale, process, and results when machine learning is utilized. Successful autoencoders train to build a model that captures the features of data in a dimensionally reduced form (the latent representation) that can then be used to recreate the original input. One application is the reconstruction of incomplete or noisy data. Here a baseline, lightweight convolutional autoencoder is used to examine the utility for planetary image reconstruction or inpainting in situations where there is destructive random noise (i.e., either luminance noise with zero returned data in some image pixels, or color noise with random additive levels across pixel channels). It is shown that, in certain use cases, multi-color image reconstruction can be usefully applied even with extensive random destructive noise with 90% areal coverage and higher. This capability is discussed in the context of intentional masking to reduce data bandwidth, or situations with low-illumination levels and other factors that obscure image data (e.g., sensor degradation or atmospheric conditions). It is further suggested that for some scientific use cases the model latent space and representations have more utility than large raw imaging datasets.
title The model is the message: Lightweight convolutional autoencoders applied to noisy imaging data for planetary science and astrobiology
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11400