Contextual Pattern Recognition Applied to Cloud Detection and Identification

The use of contextuial information in classification of satellite imagery of clouds is considered. A general contextual classification rule is developed which is then simplified under some realistic assumptions made. for the label relationships of neighboring cloud image pixels. The resulting decision rule is defined in terms of transition probabilities between pairs of neighboring pixels. Experimental evaluation of the rule confirms its superiority over the conventional Bayes rule and provides justification for the assumption made.