Automated Analysis of Remotely Sensed Images Using the Unicore Workflow Management System

Abstract

The progress of remote sensing technologies leads to increased supply of high-resolution image data. However, solutions for processing large volumes of data are lagging behind: desktop computers cannot cope anymore with the requirements of macro-scale remote sensing applications; therefore, parallel methods running in High-Performance Computing (HPC) environments are essential. Managing an HPC processing pipeline is non-trivial for a scientist, especially when the computing environment is heterogeneous and the set of tasks has complex dependencies. This paper proposes an end-to-end scientific workflow approach based on the UNICORE workflow management system for automating the full chain of Support Vector Machine (SVM)-based classification of remotely sensed images. The high-level nature of UNICORE workflows allows to deal with heterogeneity of HPC computing environments and offers powerful workflow operations such as needed for parameter sweeps. As a result, the remote sensing workflow of SVM-based classification becomes re-usable across different computing environments, thus increasing usability and reducing efforts for a scientist.