Low-complexity lossy compression of hyperspectral images via informed quantization

Lossy compression of hyperspectral and ultraspectral images is traditionally performed using 3D transform coding. This approach yields good performance, but the complexity and memory requirements make it unsuitable for onboard compression. In this paper we propose a low-complexity lossy compression scheme based on prediction, quantization and rate-distortion optimization. The scheme employs coset codes coupled with the newconcept of “informed quantization”, and requires no entropy coding. The performance of the resulting algorithm is competitive with that of state-of-the-art 3D transform coding schemes, but the complexity is immensely lower, making it suitable for onboard compression at high throughputs.