A Progressive Semi-Distillation Model for Dual-Source Remote Sensing Image Classification

Panchromatic images (PANs) and multispectral (MS) images (MSs) are widely used for dual-source remote sensing image classification, gradually becoming a research hotspot. However, making the most of dual-source image information with insufficiently labeled samples is a significant challenge. This article proposes a progressive semi-distillation model (PSDM) to classify dual-source remote sensing images with insufficient samples. We design a framework of rookie teacher network (RTN)-teaching assistant system (TAS)-student grouping network (SGN) in the case of a traditional teacher network (TN) (i.e., rookie TN (RTN)) that does not provide excellent guidance to student network (SN) due to insufficient samples. The PSDM expands the samples and compresses the space through the RTN-SGN structure to cope with the dilemma of insufficient samples. To make RTN better guide the SGN, we design TAS, which can gradually guide SGN to learn the samples from easy to difficult. It can also further assist SGN training to improve the classification performance of SGN with insufficient samples. We design SGN and add cooperation and CorM to better learn dual-source information. These strategies can eliminate SGN’s over-dependence on the RTN, help SGN outperform the RTN, and achieve the effect of semi-distillation. Experimental results and theoretical analysis have sufficiently pointed out the proposed method’s accuracy, efficiency, and robustness under insufficient sample situations. Our model is available at https://github.com/MarjordCpz/PSDM.