EarthBridge: A Solution for 4th Multi-modal Aerial View Image Challenge Translation Track

TL;DR

EarthBridge introduces advanced diffusion and contrastive learning methods for high-fidelity cross-modal aerial image translation, achieving top performance in the MAVIC-T challenge.

Contribution

The paper presents EarthBridge, a novel framework combining diffusion models and contrastive learning for improved multi-modal aerial image translation.

Findings

Achieved second place in MAVIC-T leaderboard with a score of 0.38.

Demonstrated superior spatial detail and spectral accuracy across challenge tasks.

Utilized specialized training techniques like bridge scalings and booting noise.

Abstract

Cross-modal image-to-image translation among Electro-Optical (EO), Infrared (IR), and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors is essential for comprehensive multi-modal aerial-view analysis. However, translating between these modalities is notoriously difficult due to their distinct electromagnetic signatures and geometric characteristics. This paper presents \textbf{EarthBridge}, a high-fidelity translation framework developed for the 4th Multi-modal Aerial View Image Challenge -- Translation (MAVIC-T). We explore two distinct methodologies: \textbf{Diffusion Bridge Implicit Models (DBIM)}, which we generalize using non-Markovian bridge processes for high-quality deterministic sampling, and \textbf{Contrastive Unpaired Translation (CUT)}, which utilizes contrastive learning for structural consistency. Our EarthBridge framework employs a channel-concatenated UNet denoiser trained with Karras-weighted bridge scalings and a specialized "booting noise" initialization to handle the inherent ambiguity in cross-modal mappings. We evaluate these methods across all four challenge tasks (SAR$\rightarrow$EO, SAR$\rightarrow$RGB, SAR$\rightarrow$IR, RGB$\rightarrow$IR), achieving superior spatial detail and spectral accuracy. Our solution achieved a composite score of 0.38, securing the second position on the MAVIC-T leaderboard. Code is available at https://github.com/Bili-Sakura/EarthBridge-Preview.