A Filtering Method for ICESat-2 Photon Point Cloud Data Based on Relative Neighboring Relationship and Local Weighted Distance Statistics

Abstract

The existing local distance statistics-based filtering method for photon point cloud data is greatly affected by the input parameter (number of photon neighbors) and has a poor ability to remove noise photons that are adjacent to signal photons. In this letter, the relative neighboring relationship (RNR) is proposed to describe the relative density distribution of the neighboring photon points around two photon points. The mean local weighted distance is then defined, which is used to enhance the discrimination between the noise photons adjacent to the signal photons and the signal photons. Finally, according to the statistical characteristics of the mean local weighted distance, two strategies for threshold selection are used to separate signal photons from noise photons. ICESat-2 data acquired over tropical forest were used to verify the performance of the proposed method, and the results showed that: 1) the proposed method has a better ability to remove the noise photons adjacent to signal photons and 2) its performance is not greatly dependent on the input parameter.