Remote Sensing (Jul 2023)

Multi-Scale Feature Residual Feedback Network for Super-Resolution Reconstruction of the Vertical Structure of the Radar Echo

  • Xiangyu Fu,
  • Qiangyu Zeng,
  • Ming Zhu,
  • Tao Zhang,
  • Hao Wang,
  • Qingqing Chen,
  • Qiu Yu,
  • Linlin Xie

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15143676
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 14
p. 3676

Abstract

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The vertical structure of radar echo is crucial for understanding complex microphysical processes of clouds and precipitation, and for providing essential data support for the study of low-level wind shear and turbulence formation, evolution, and dissipation. Therefore, finding methods to improve the vertical data resolution of the existing radar network is crucial. Existing algorithms for improving image resolution usually focus on increasing the width and height of images. However, improving the vertical data resolution of weather radar requires a focus on improving the elevation angle resolution while maintaining distance resolution. To address this challenge, we propose a network for super-resolution reconstruction of weather radar echo vertical structures. The network is based on a multi-scale residual feedback network (MR-FBN) and uses new multi-scale feature residual blocks (MSRB) to effectively extract and utilize data features at different scales. The feedback network gradually generates the final high-resolution vertical structure data. In addition, we propose an elevation upsampling layer (EUL) specifically for this task, replacing the traditional image subpixel convolution layer. Experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively improve the elevation angle resolution of weather radar echo vertical structure data, providing valuable help for atmospheric detection.

Keywords