COSMOS: Context-preserving satellite memory-optimized segmentation system for ultra large-scale remote sensing images

Semantic segmentation of ultra-large remote sensing images faces substantial memory challenges, with virtually no previous work successfully addressing the preservation of global context in such large-scale imagery. Despite the critical importance of maintaining long-range relationships, GPU memory...

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Main Authors: Trung Dung Nguyen, Zhen He, Wei Xiang, Rajalakshmi Rajasekaran
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-08-01
Series:International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843225003905
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author Trung Dung Nguyen
Zhen He
Wei Xiang
Rajalakshmi Rajasekaran
author_facet Trung Dung Nguyen
Zhen He
Wei Xiang
Rajalakshmi Rajasekaran
author_sort Trung Dung Nguyen
collection DOAJ
description Semantic segmentation of ultra-large remote sensing images faces substantial memory challenges, with virtually no previous work successfully addressing the preservation of global context in such large-scale imagery. Despite the critical importance of maintaining long-range relationships, GPU memory limitations have forced researchers to process these massive images as small disconnected patches. Our novel framework represents a breakthrough, being the first approach (with only one prior incomplete attempt in literature) to efficiently process large 4K patches on a single 24 GB GPU while preserving crucial large-scale image context. Unlike conventional tiling methods, our approach maintains global context through an innovative two-stage process: first extracting features from smaller 1K patches using encoders from powerful segmentation models (SegFormer and the Segment Anything Model), then assembling these embeddings to train a 4K decoder. This strategic separation dramatically reduces memory requirements while maintaining long-range dependencies. Through extensive experiments and ablation studies on the FBP, GID and Inria benchmark datasets, our approach achieves unprecedented performance, significantly outperforming all existing methods in both accuracy and memory efficiency.
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id doaj-art-1a6c0a00bfe34f5abc9d97ea87f7c4a8
institution Matheson Library
issn 1569-8432
language English
publishDate 2025-08-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
series International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation
spelling doaj-art-1a6c0a00bfe34f5abc9d97ea87f7c4a82025-08-02T04:46:40ZengElsevierInternational Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation1569-84322025-08-01142104743COSMOS: Context-preserving satellite memory-optimized segmentation system for ultra large-scale remote sensing imagesTrung Dung Nguyen0Zhen He1Wei Xiang2Rajalakshmi Rajasekaran3Corresponding author.; La Trobe University, Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, Melbourne, AustraliaLa Trobe University, Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, Melbourne, AustraliaLa Trobe University, Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, Melbourne, AustraliaLa Trobe University, Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, Melbourne, AustraliaSemantic segmentation of ultra-large remote sensing images faces substantial memory challenges, with virtually no previous work successfully addressing the preservation of global context in such large-scale imagery. Despite the critical importance of maintaining long-range relationships, GPU memory limitations have forced researchers to process these massive images as small disconnected patches. Our novel framework represents a breakthrough, being the first approach (with only one prior incomplete attempt in literature) to efficiently process large 4K patches on a single 24 GB GPU while preserving crucial large-scale image context. Unlike conventional tiling methods, our approach maintains global context through an innovative two-stage process: first extracting features from smaller 1K patches using encoders from powerful segmentation models (SegFormer and the Segment Anything Model), then assembling these embeddings to train a 4K decoder. This strategic separation dramatically reduces memory requirements while maintaining long-range dependencies. Through extensive experiments and ablation studies on the FBP, GID and Inria benchmark datasets, our approach achieves unprecedented performance, significantly outperforming all existing methods in both accuracy and memory efficiency.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843225003905Semantic segmentationUltra large imagesRemote sensingComputer visionLand coverGlobal context
spellingShingle Trung Dung Nguyen
Zhen He
Wei Xiang
Rajalakshmi Rajasekaran
COSMOS: Context-preserving satellite memory-optimized segmentation system for ultra large-scale remote sensing images
International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation
Semantic segmentation
Ultra large images
Remote sensing
Computer vision
Land cover
Global context
title COSMOS: Context-preserving satellite memory-optimized segmentation system for ultra large-scale remote sensing images
title_full COSMOS: Context-preserving satellite memory-optimized segmentation system for ultra large-scale remote sensing images
title_fullStr COSMOS: Context-preserving satellite memory-optimized segmentation system for ultra large-scale remote sensing images
title_full_unstemmed COSMOS: Context-preserving satellite memory-optimized segmentation system for ultra large-scale remote sensing images
title_short COSMOS: Context-preserving satellite memory-optimized segmentation system for ultra large-scale remote sensing images
title_sort cosmos context preserving satellite memory optimized segmentation system for ultra large scale remote sensing images
topic Semantic segmentation
Ultra large images
Remote sensing
Computer vision
Land cover
Global context
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843225003905
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AT zhenhe cosmoscontextpreservingsatellitememoryoptimizedsegmentationsystemforultralargescaleremotesensingimages
AT weixiang cosmoscontextpreservingsatellitememoryoptimizedsegmentationsystemforultralargescaleremotesensingimages
AT rajalakshmirajasekaran cosmoscontextpreservingsatellitememoryoptimizedsegmentationsystemforultralargescaleremotesensingimages