Cloud and shadow detection and removal for Landsat-8 data

Xiangsheng Kong*a, Yonggang Qianb, Anding Zhanga

a
Ludong University, Yantai, Shandong, China 264025;
b
Academy of OPTO-Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China 100094
ABSTRACT
Since 1972, Landsat program has experienced six successful missions that have contributed to nearly 40 years record of
Earth Observations for monitoring the land cover and change dynamics. The successful launch of the Landsat Data
Continuity Mission (LDCM, now named Landsat 8) on February 11, 2013 continues the mission of collecting images of
the Earth with an open (free) data policy. Landsat 8 carries two push broom sensors: the Operational Land Imager (OLI)
will collect data for nine shortwave spectral bands over a 185 km swath with a 30 m spatial resolution for all bands
except a 15 m panchromatic band. The other instrument, the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) will collect image data for
two thermal bands with a 100 m resolution over a 185 km swath. However, cloud and associated cloud shadows
frequently obscure the detection of land surface and restrict the the analysis of change trends over time. This paper
presents a new method to detect and remove cloud and cloud shadows using the Landsat 8 first Image data (WRS2:
Path/Row =33/32, acquired on March 18, 2013). The method uses six bands for transformation to calculate intensity of
cloud and cloud shadows from the nine spectral bands and was further removed. The method takes advantage of spectral
information. The validation demonstrates that cloud and cloud shadows contaminated pixels were accurately detected
with overall accuracies of 98 and 97%, respectively. However, for thick cloud and cloud shadows, the performance of
this method was limited. With further development there is potential for this method using for atmospheric corrections to
improve landscape change detection.

Keywords: Landsat 8, OLI/TIRS, cloud and cloud shadow, recognition and removal

1. INTRODUCTION
Since 1972, Landsat program has experienced six successful missions that have contributed to nearly 40 years record of
Earth Observations for monitoring the land cover and change dynamics. The successful launch of the Landsat Data
Continuity Mission (LDCM) on February 11, 2013 continues the mission of collecting images of the Earth with an open
(free) data policy. Landsat 8 data products are produced to be consistent with the existing standard Level-1
(orthorectified) data products created using Landsat 1 to Landsat 7 data. The standard Level 1 Product have been
available to download at no charge from EarthExplorer (http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/), GloVis
(http://glovis.usgs.gov/), or via the LandsatLook Viewer (http://landsatlook.usgs.gov/) since 2013 May 30. LDCM
carries two push broom sensors: the Operational Land Imager (OLI) will collect data for nine shortwave spectral
bands over a 185 km swath with a 30 m spatial resolution for all bands except a 15 m panchromatic band. The
other instrument, the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) will collect image data for two thermal bands with a 100 m
resolution over a 185 km swath.
Landsat series data products will be widely used for land explore, but cloud and shadow constitute a major problem not
only because they may mask the objects being sensed, but also because they alter the spectral signature. Cloud and
shadow are common at all latitudes where Landsat MSS/TM/ETM+/OLI and TIRS sensors also turn around the Earth.
*emails305@163.com; phone 86 535 664-6189; fax 86 535 6693671

MIPPR 2013: Remote Sensing Image Processing, Geographic Information Systems, and
Other Applications, edited by Jinwen Tian, Jie Ma, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8921, 89210N
2013 SPIE CCC code: 0277-786X/13/$18 doi: 10.1117/12.2031120

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8921 89210N-1

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 The optical thickness of cloud areas is so high that the ground surfaces cannot be seen, whereas in cloudy regions some
information from the ground is still recognizable.
A lot of work has been carried out on the method for detecting and removing cloud. For example, cloud effects can be
estimated through a forward modeling process that, by means of an appropriate radiative transform model, furnishes the
effect for given atmospheric conditions and spectral bands. The estimated cloud can then be subtracted from the observed
data (e.g. Berk et al. 1989, 1998). To adopt this method, it is necessary to acquire a series of detailed data regarding the
atmospheric conditions at the time and place of the remote sensing data. This is difficult for most of the remote sensing
data. For other cloud processing algorithms based on dynamic filtering method, it is suitable for the case that there exists
relatively wide range of cloud in the remote sensing data.
To solve this problem, Landsat OLI data provides an added cloud detection band (Named cirrus band) for detecting cloud.
In this paper, we use six bands for transformation to calculate intensity of cloud and cloud shadows from the nine
spectral bands and was further removed. The method takes advantage of spectral information of cloud.

2. DATA AND METHOD

To verify the effectiveness of cloud recognition and removal for serial Landsat OLI images, we applied these methods to
three scenes (WRS2Path/Row = 33/22) covering representative surface covers and encompassing a broad spectrum of
atmospheric conditions ranging from clear conditions through thin cloud to thick cloud. The band characteristics and
spectral characteristics of Landsat 8 OLI will be suitable for cloud recognition and removal. OLI Level 1 data products
use a 16-bit numbers representing pixel value (Qcalmax=65535) which can record the minus changes about land radiance
and reflectance.
2.1 Landsat8 OLI band characters

Table 1 summarize the prelaunch spectral range, ground sample distance (GSD), bit number of digital number for OLI
and ETM+ sensors respectively. Fig. 1 show the relative spectral response (RSR) profiles of Landsat OLI sensors
measured during prelaunch. The OLI bands will maintain the same parts of the spectral range as Landsat 7 sensors. It
was designed to add two new bands 1 and 9 to more effectively measure high, thin clouds and water quality.
Table 1 OLI and ETM+ reflective spectral band characters
OLI spectral bands ETM+ spectral bands
Band Band Spectral GSD (m) Bit Band Band Spectral GSD (m) Bit
Number Name range (nm) Number Name range (nm)
1 Blue 433-453 30 16
2 Blue 450-515 30 16 1 Blue 450-515 30 8
3 Green 525-600 30 16 2 Green 525-605 30 8
4 Red 630-680 30 16 3 Red 630-690 30 8
5 NIR 845-885 30 16 4 NIR 775-900 30 8
6 SWIR 2 1560-1660 30 16 5 SWIR 1550-1750 30 8
7 SWIR 3 2100-2300 30 16 7 SWIR 2090-2350 30 8
8 Pan 500-680 15 16 8 Pan 520-900 15 8
9 Cirrus 1360-1390 30 16

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 (a)

cloud

water
vegetation

Wovfngth (uml 0W3v1ength (rng

ro

Fig. 2. Landsat 8 color composite image of the Landsat OLI image data on Mar 18, 2013 (a) Spectral characteristics of five land cover
types (cloud, cloud shadow, water, vegetation, soil) using pixel value (left) and TOA reflectance (right)

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 L = TOA spectral radiance (W / m 2
sr m
LMAX = Spectral at-sensor radiance that is scaled to Qcalmax (W / m 2
sr m )
LMIN = Spectral at-sensor radiance that is scaled to Qcalmmin (W / m 2
sr m )
Qcal = Quantized and calibrated standard product pixel values (DN)
Qcalmax = Maximum quantized and calibrated pixel value corresponding to LMAX (DN)
Qcalmin = Minimum quantized and calibrated pixel value corresponding to LMIN (DN)

Grescale
=Spectral rescaling gain factor ( W / m
2

sr m / DN )

Brescale =Spectral rescaling bias factor (W / m 2

sr m )
Conversion to TOA Reflectance
In order to reduce variability, OLI data can be converted to TOA reflectance using reflectance rescaling coefficients
provided in the metadata file distributed with synchronous remote sensing data. Equation (3) is used to convert DN
values to TOA reflectance for OLI data. This conversion method is different from converting the other Landsat series
data.

M Q cal A
'
cos s
(3)

where
' = TOA planetary reflectance
M = Band-specific multiplicative rescaling factor from the metadata
A = Band-specific additive rescaling factor from the metadata
Qcal = Quantized and calibrated standard product pixel values (DN)
s = Solar zenith angle (degrees) which is calculated by 90-sun elevation angle provided in the metadata
2.3 Spectral reflectance characteristics of the clouds

The shape of the reflectance spectrum can be used for identification of cloud type. To remove the cloud and its shadow,
the difference analysis of the spectral reflectance characteristics between cloud free region and cloud region was
performed in this paper. Fig. 2 is the 7, 4, 3 bands color composite image of the Landsat OLI image data on Mar 18, 2013
(a) and spatial profile curve (b) calculated by equation (3). In Fig. 2(a), the circle, regular triangle, inverted triangle,
pentagon and square (filled with red) show five regions which include cloud shadow, cloud, soil, water, and vegetation,
respectively. In the false color composite image, the white region is the thick cloud region and the black part beside it is
its shadow region. From Fig. 2 (b), the spectral characteristics of cloud, its shadow region, and other three surface cover
types are as follows:
(1) In all nine reflective bands, the spectral reflectance value in thick cloud region is significantly higher than other cover
type region.
(2) In water bodies and cloud shadow regions, the spectral reflectance value of band 4, 5, 7 and 9 is similar and
significantly reduced;

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 (3) In all surface cover type, the spectral reflectance value of OLI 9 is small than other band. The pixel value of thick
cloud in OLI 9 (Cirrus band) is 8907, whereas the average value of five types is 6063. The TOA reflectance of thick
cloud in thick is 0.07814, whereas the average value of five types is 0.020632.
2.4 Clouds recognition and detection

High, thin and thick clouds can be hard to spot in satellite images. Both the clouds and their shadows can be interfered
with measurements. Landsat 8 OLI sensors add a new band will help scientist measure clouds better than previous
Landsat sensors because it measures light in the part of the electromagnetic spectral range where the clouds are most
visible. The OLI 9 (cirrus band) parameter has been similar characteristics with MODIS band 26 (1.36-1.39 m) and it
reveals the atmospheric conditions.
Based on above analyses, the method of cloud detection is written as follows for Landsat 8 OLI sensors. Using a single
band to measure cloud can used the following criteria:

OLI 9 5245,or though reflectance value

(4)
9TOA 0.00568
where 9 denotes OLI cirrus band, denotes reflectance value in remote sensing image.
Using more bands to detect cloud can use the follows:
OLI c 0.846 OLI 2 0.073 OLI 3 0.46 OLI 4 0.0032 OLI 5
0.049 OLI 6 0.0119 OLI 7 ,or simplified by
(5)
OLI c 0.846 OLI 2 0.46 OLI 4
OLI c 2458
where c is cloud component.
2.5 Clouds removal method

The scatter-plot of DN values in each spectral band with the corresponding OLI cloud values reveals their linear
relationship between OLI data and cloud. The cloud can be removed as described below equation (6)

OLI 2 1.88

OLI 3 0.89
OLI 1.02
OLI decloud 4
OLI cloud (6)
OLI 5 0.85

OLI 6 1.40
OLI 0.71
7

Where OLIcloud denotes cloud pixel values using equation (4) or (5), OLdecloud denotes image data after removing cloud
and number 2 to 7 denotes the OLI band name.

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 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Cloud Recognition for OLI sensor

To test the effectiveness of the two methods, we applied these to a region (WRS2: Path/Row =33/32). Image data covers
large area (185 X 185 km), the surface cover type is mainly a mix of vegetation, soil, water, and contaminated by cloud
and its shadow (Fig. 3. a). Fig. 3. illustrates the results of detecting the cloud using OLI band 9 (cirrus band, Fig. 3. (b))
and using equation (5) (Fig. 3. (c)). Visually, the result is so good that the cloud detail can be measured using equation (4)
and equation (5).
Cirrus band of OLI is sensitive to cloud both thin cloud and thick cloud whereas this band is no sensitive to surface cover
type. The DN of surface reflective band can be used as background and
3.2 Cloud removal

The image P33/R32 (Fig. 4) cover a large homegeneous land surface with desert land. A thin cloud piece appears in the
top right and the terrestrial surface cover cannot be indentified visually. The OLIcloud values using the thwo methods
increased with increasing cloud optical depth within some extend depth. Thin cloud can be removed from remote sensing
using equation (6) to reveal the surface cover type (Fig. 4). Method of cloud removal cannot be used for thick cloud
effectively (Fig. 4, left top region), The validation demonstrates that cloud and cloud shadows contaminated pixels were
accurately detected with overall accuracies of 98 and 97%, respectively.

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 (a)

cloud

water
vegetation

Wovfngth (uml 0W3v1ength (rng

ro

Fig. 2. Landsat 8 color composite image of the Landsat OLI image data on Mar 18, 2013 (a) Spectral characteristics of five land cover
types (cloud, cloud shadow, water, vegetation, soil) using pixel value (left) and TOA reflectance (right)

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 106 W 105 30'W 105 W 104 30'W 104 W

(a)
O
z

106 W 105 30'W 105 W 104 30'W 104 W

106W

106 W

Z
10530'W

105 30'W

A
O
105 Vv

105 W

Z
104 30'W
0430'Vv

104 W
W4 Vs'

106 W 105 30'W 105 W 104 30'W 104 W

(b) (c)

Fig. 3. False color composite image (a) , cirrus band image (b) and equation 5 (c)

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 Fig. 4. Example result of cloud removal for OLI composite image(OLI7,OLI5,OLI3,R,G,B) before(left), cloud removal (right)

4. CONCLUSIONS
Two methods for measuring cloud have been developed for quantifying spatial variations in atmospheric contamination
on Landsat OLI imagery. In a twodimensional spectral space consisting of visible bands (OLI2 and OIL4), the cloud
can be revealed. The OLI 9 (cirrus) band is only sensitive to cloud and is no sensitive to surface cover type. The two
methods can both be used to measure cloud.
Cloud removal is difficult, but the method described above is effectively to remove the thin cloud for OLI data. This
result need to be certified furthermore.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was supported by the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China (no. ZR2009EM005) and a
Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program (no. J12LH01). This work was also
supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 41271342 and 41101330.

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