Multi-Resolution SAR and Optical Remote Sensing Image Registration Methods: A Review, Datasets, and Future Perspectives

TL;DR

This review paper discusses the challenges, datasets, and current methods for multi-resolution SAR and optical image registration, highlighting the need for improved algorithms and the creation of a new dataset to advance the field.

Contribution

It introduces the MultiResSAR dataset, provides a systematic analysis of 16 registration algorithms, and outlines future research directions for high-resolution SAR and optical image registration.

Findings

No algorithm achieves perfect registration success.

Performance declines with increasing resolution, especially on sub-meter data.

Deep learning methods like XoFTR outperform traditional algorithms.

Abstract

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical image registration is essential for remote sensing data fusion, with applications in military reconnaissance, environmental monitoring, and disaster management. However, challenges arise from differences in imaging mechanisms, geometric distortions, and radiometric properties between SAR and optical images. As image resolution increases, fine SAR textures become more significant, leading to alignment issues and 3D spatial discrepancies. Two major gaps exist: the lack of a publicly available multi-resolution, multi-scene registration dataset and the absence of systematic analysis of current methods. To address this, the MultiResSAR dataset was created, containing over 10k pairs of multi-source, multi-resolution, and multi-scene SAR and optical images. Sixteen state-of-the-art algorithms were tested. Results show no algorithm achieves 100% success, and performance decreases as resolution increases, with most failing on sub-meter data. XoFTR performs best among deep learning methods (40.58%), while RIFT performs best among traditional methods (66.51%). Future research should focus on noise suppression, 3D geometric fusion, cross-view transformation modeling, and deep learning optimization for robust registration of high-resolution SAR and optical images. The dataset is available at https://github.com/betterlll/Multi-Resolution-SAR-dataset-.