User-Oriented Image Quality Assessment of ZY-3 Satellite Imagery

For the purpose of evaluating the image quality of ZY-3 (Ziyuan-3) satellite imagery and from the perspective of data users in various professions, this paper proposed a user-oriented quality assessment to assess the panchromatic and multispectral images of ZY-3, which included the assessment of its image statistical characteristics, image visual effect, and interpretability. In order to better understand the quality level of the ZY-3 image product and the scope of its applications, a comparison of image quality factors was conducted between ZY-3 image and SPOT-5 image due to the close similarity between their functionalities. As far as the ZY-3 image was concerned, features of its gray-scale statistics showed the advantage in its wider data range, higher standard deviation, and a better histogram presenting in image. The analysis of texture from the two images also revealed better performance of the ZY-3 image than that of SPOT-5 with respect to homogeneity (HOM), contrast (CON), entropy (ENT), and angular second moment (ASM). Moreover, the result of visual effect assessment also confirmed the good performance of ZY-3 data. An evaluation of the interpretability was conducted by using the National Imagery Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS). According to the relationship between NIIRS and mapping scale, the suitable mapping scales of the images from both ZY-3 and SPOT-5 were estimated from the viewpoint of image quality. As our survey shows, ZY-3 image products are marked by good gray scale characteristics and texture effect. According to its moderate NIIRS rating and result of mapping scale estimation, its maximum mapping scale potential is about 1:16 000.