In the polar region, it is difficult to discriminate between clouds and ground surface from satellite visible or infrared data, because of the high albedo and low surface temperature of snow and ice cover. In this paper, a method to classify clouds, sea ice and ground is proposed. This study is based upon analysis of the NOAA/AVHRR infrared images in Antarctica. The algorithm consists of two major approaches : estimating image features and a classification algorithm. A decision tree classifier is designed to classify the region into one of three classes using six image features. Though sea ice and ground can be largely separated using only one feature, more than three features are necessary to separate clouds.
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