Analysis and evaluation on fusion methods of medium and high spatial resolution remote sensing image

The remote sensing image fusion technique has been developed quickly and applied, which is an important remote sensing research topic. How to choose the right fusion method is one of the challenges that the field face. PCA, Brovey, IHS and Multiplicative are used to fuse QuickBird and SPOT5 low-resolution multispectral and high-resolution panchromatic images. The fused images are analysed and evaluated by subjective qualitative analysis and objective quantification. Analysis indicates that IHS and Multiplicative are better in keeping color, and Multiplicative is suited for environmental study of city and suburb. PCA is more detailedly portrayed the image than Brovey fusion method and the image is clearer by PCA. Brovey is suitable for separating objects, especially the greenbelt. This experiment provides a practical reference value to the related research that how to select the appropriate remote sensing image fusion method in the future.