PPLM-Net: Partial Patch Local Masking Net for Remote Sensing Image Unsupervised Domain Adaptation Classification

In remote sensing image classification task, it is often apply a model trained on one dataset (source domain) to another dataset (target domain). However, due to the presence of domain shift between these domains where data are not independent and identically distributed, the performance of the model typically deteriorates. Domain adaptation aims to improve the generalization performance of the model in the target domain. In response to the challenges of intricate backgrounds, domain shift, and potentially unlabeled target domain in remote sensing images, this article proposes a network specifically designed for unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) classification of remote sensing images, named PPLM-net. The network consists of a domain adversarial training (DAT) module, a partial patch local masking (PPLM) module and a teacher-student network module. The DAT module enables the network to extract domain-invariant features. The PPLM module compels the model to focus on the global information of target domain remote sensing images with intricate backgrounds, learning contextual content to improve model performance. The teacher network generates pseudolabels for complete unlabeled target domain images. The student network trained with PPLM target domain classification loss to generate robust and discriminative features. We construct a dataset dedicated to the UDA scene classification task of remote sensing images named RSDA. We collect images from four publicly available datasets spanning seven common categories, containing over 10 000 images. Compared with the current state-of-the-art UDA model, PPLM-net achieves the best results in 12 domain adaptation classification tasks on RSDA. The average accuracy reaches 99.115%.