{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,9]],"date-time":"2026-05-09T00:10:07Z","timestamp":1778285407574,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]],"date-time":"2026-05-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1778198400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Guizhou Provincial Key Research and Development Project","award":["ZL25010045"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ZL25010045"]}]},{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["2022YFC3004402"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022YFC3004402"]}]},{"name":"the Science and Technology Project of Powerchina","award":["DJ-ZDXM-2024-46"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DJ-ZDXM-2024-46"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Large-scale studies and applications of SAR images require the mosaicking of multiple scenes. However, geometric misregistration and radiometric inconsistencies among adjacent images often lead to poor continuity and unnatural transitions in the mosaicked images, which severely restrict the effectiveness of SAR images in large-area information analysis and retrieval. Optimal seamline detection seeks to determine the most suitable stitching path within the overlapping regions of adjacent images, ensuring that mosaicked SAR images exhibit maximal consistency in intensity, texture, and geometric features while minimizing stitching artifacts and visual discontinuities. Existing seamline detection methods, however, are often limited by their obstacle-avoidance capability and computational efficiency. To overcome these limitations, this study proposes an optimal seamline detection approach for SAR images guided by superpixel segmentation and region merging. First, the Patch-Based SLIC (PB-SLIC) algorithm is enhanced to achieve consistent superpixel segmentation across multiple overlapping images. Second, a region adjacency graph is constructed by integrating Bhattacharyya distance, texture distribution, and boundary length information, which guides the merging of superpixels and produces candidate seamlines that preserve object integrity and accurately follow object boundaries. Then, an initial seamline network is generated using area Voronoi diagrams with overlap (AVDO), and a cost function based on normalized cross-correlation is established. The seamline network is further refined using a shortest-path algorithm to extract the optimal seamline network from the candidates. Finally, using real SAR datasets, we analyze and verify the effectiveness of superpixel segmentation and region merging in seamline detection. Comparative experiments with two classical methods further demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves superior obstacle-avoidance capability and shorter search time, while ensuring higher mosaicking quality and significantly improving computational efficiency.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0348842","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]],"date-time":"2026-05-08T23:11:18Z","timestamp":1778281878000},"page":"e0348842","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Optimal seamline detection for SAR image mosaicking guided by superpixel segmentation and region merging"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Dong","family":"Yan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0000-0788-9509","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Feixiang","family":"Zeng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bairu","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Rui","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yi","family":"She","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]]},"reference":[{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0348842.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"375","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(96)00160-5","article-title":"Detection of sand-covered geologic features in the Arabian Peninsula using SIR-C\/X-SAR data","volume":"59","author":"AE Dabbagh","year":"1997","journal-title":"Remote Sens Environ"},{"issue":"11","key":"pone.0348842.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3307","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2007.901027","article-title":"ALOS PALSAR: A Pathfinder Mission for Global-Scale Monitoring of the Environment","volume":"45","author":"A Rosenqvist","year":"2007","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sensing"},{"issue":"31","key":"pone.0348842.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3499","DOI":"10.1007\/s11434-010-4078-3","article-title":"Yushu earthquake synergic analysis using multimodal SAR datasets","volume":"55","author":"H Guo","year":"2010","journal-title":"Chin Sci Bull"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0348842.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"293","DOI":"10.1287\/opre.46.3.293","article-title":"Mosaicking of Aerial Photographic Maps Via Seams Defined by Bottleneck Shortest Paths","volume":"46","author":"E Fernandez","year":"1998","journal-title":"Oper Res"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0348842.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"53","DOI":"10.1016\/S0924-2716(01)00033-8","article-title":"Seamline detection in colour orthoimage mosaicking by use of twin snakes","volume":"56","author":"M Kerschner","year":"2001","journal-title":"ISPRS J Photogramm Remote Sens"},{"issue":"8","key":"pone.0348842.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1335","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2013.2293197","article-title":"Seamline Determination Based on Segmentation for Urban Image Mosaicking","volume":"11","author":"Pan Jun","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci Remote Sensing Lett"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2015.11.007","article-title":"SGM-based seamline determination for urban orthophoto mosaicking","volume":"112","author":"S Pang","year":"2016","journal-title":"ISPRS J Photogramm Remote Sens"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2024.3393626","article-title":"Hybrid Network-Based Automatic Seamline Detection for Orthophoto Mosaicking","volume":"62","author":"W Yuan","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sensing"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0348842.ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"121","DOI":"10.14358\/PERS.82.2.121","article-title":"Seamline Determination for High Resolution Orthoimage Mosaicking Using Watershed Segmentation","volume":"82","author":"M Wang","year":"2016","journal-title":"Photogram Engng Rem Sens"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2023.3250519","article-title":"A Fast Globally Optimal Seamline Detection Method for High-Resolution Remote Sensing Images","volume":"20","author":"H Shen","year":"2023","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci Remote Sensing Lett"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref011","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"108","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2015.09.009","article-title":"A robust mosaicking procedure for high spatial resolution remote sensing images","volume":"109","author":"X Li","year":"2015","journal-title":"ISPRS J Photogramm Remote Sens"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref012","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"44","DOI":"10.1109\/38.988746","article-title":"Automated mosaics via topology inference","volume":"22","author":"S Hsu","year":"2002","journal-title":"IEEE Comput Graph Appl"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0348842.ref013","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1737","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2008.2009880","article-title":"Automatic Generation of Seamline Network Using Area Voronoi Diagrams With Overlap","volume":"47","author":"Pan Jun","year":"2009","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sensing"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0348842.ref014","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1658","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2013.2253110","article-title":"Seamline Network Refinement Based on Area Voronoi Diagrams With Overlap","volume":"52","author":"J Pan","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sensing"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref015","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"917","DOI":"10.3390\/rs15040917","article-title":"Voronoi centerline-based seamline network generation method","volume":"15","author":"X Yuan","year":"2023","journal-title":"Remote Sensing"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref016","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13322","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2025.3570614","article-title":"A Robust Seamline Extraction Method for Large-Scale Orthoimages Using an Adaptive Cost A* Algorithm","volume":"18","author":"Z Hong","year":"2025","journal-title":"IEEE J Sel Top Appl Earth Observations Remote Sensing"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref017","first-page":"1","article-title":"An Efficient, Globally Optimal Two-Step Seamline Detection Method for Batch Satellite Orthorectified Images","volume":"63","author":"Z Zhang","year":"2025","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sensing"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref018","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4960","DOI":"10.1080\/01431161.2017.1350309","article-title":"Mosaicking UAV orthoimages using bounded Voronoi diagrams and watersheds","volume":"39","author":"M Song","year":"2017","journal-title":"International Journal of Remote Sensing"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref019","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"201","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2022.02.011","article-title":"Continuous space ant colony algorithm for automatic selection of orthophoto mosaic seamline network","volume":"186","author":"Q Wang","year":"2022","journal-title":"ISPRS J Photogramm Remote Sens"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref020","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2023.3275970","article-title":"Seamless UAV Hyperspectral Image Stitching Using Optimal Seamline Detection via Graph Cuts","volume":"61","author":"Z Peng","year":"2023","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sensing"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref021","first-page":"1","article-title":"UAV Image Stitching via Global Optimal Seamline Detection and Local Alignment With Seamline Constraint","volume":"63","author":"R Li","year":"2025","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sensing"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref022","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Li L, Yao J, Xie R, Xia M, Xiang B. Superpixel-based optimal seamline detection via graph cuts for panoramic images. In: 2016 IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation (ICIA). 2016. p. 1484\u20139. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/icinfa.2016.7832053","DOI":"10.1109\/ICInfA.2016.7832053"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0348842.ref023","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1565","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2020.2999404","article-title":"Superpixel-Based Seamless Image Stitching for UAV Images","volume":"59","author":"Y Yuan","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sensing"},{"issue":"9","key":"pone.0348842.ref024","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3642","DOI":"10.3390\/app14093642","article-title":"A Segmentation-Based Optimal Seamline Generation Method for SAR Image Mosaic","volume":"14","author":"R Liu","year":"2024","journal-title":"Appl Sci"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref025","first-page":"1","article-title":"Efficient Superpixel-Based Seamline Detection for Large-Scale Image Stitching","volume":"22","author":"Z Wang","year":"2025","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci Remote Sensing Lett"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref026","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Xie L, Zhang H, Wang C. Urban land cover change types identification using fully polarimetric SAR descriptors. In: 2016 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS). 2016. p. 4718\u201321. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1109\/igarss.2016.7730231","DOI":"10.1109\/IGARSS.2016.7730231"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref027","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"68","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2017.2773471","article-title":"2- and 3-D Urban Change Detection With Quad-PolSAR Data","volume":"15","author":"M Che","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci Remote Sens Lett"},{"issue":"12","key":"pone.0348842.ref028","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5530","DOI":"10.1109\/TII.2018.2873492","article-title":"Deep Learning and Superpixel Feature Extraction Based on Contractive Autoencoder for Change Detection in SAR Images","volume":"14","author":"N Lv","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Ind Inf"},{"issue":"12","key":"pone.0348842.ref029","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5436","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2016.2621818","article-title":"Classification of Detected Changes From Multitemporal High-Res Xband SAR Images: Intensity and Texture Descriptors From SuperPixels","volume":"9","author":"TLM Barreto","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE J Sel Top Appl Earth Observations Remote Sensing"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref030","author":"H Hu","year":"2022"},{"issue":"5","key":"pone.0348842.ref031","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"730","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2016.2540809","article-title":"Superpixel-Based CFAR Target Detection for High-Resolution SAR Images","volume":"13","author":"W Yu","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci Remote Sensing Lett"},{"issue":"11","key":"pone.0348842.ref032","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2274","DOI":"10.1109\/TPAMI.2012.120","article-title":"SLIC superpixels compared to state-of-the-art superpixel methods","volume":"34","author":"R Achanta","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell"},{"issue":"19","key":"pone.0348842.ref033","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6165","DOI":"10.1049\/joe.2019.0193","article-title":"Superpixel cosegmentation algorithm for synthetic aperture radar image change detection","volume":"2019","author":"N Shao","year":"2019","journal-title":"J Eng"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref034","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1780","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2015.2425873","article-title":"PolSAR Ship Detection Based on Superpixel-Level Scattering Mechanism Distribution Features","volume":"12","author":"Y Wang","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci Remote Sens Lett"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0348842.ref035","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1414","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2013.2259214","article-title":"Superpixel Generating Algorithm Based on Pixel Intensity and Location Similarity for SAR Image Classification","volume":"10","author":"D Xiang","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci Remote Sensing Lett"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0348842.ref036","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"112","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2020.2969321","article-title":"Region-Merging Method With Texture Pattern Attention for SAR Image Segmentation","volume":"18","author":"S Fan","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci Remote Sensing Lett"},{"issue":"10","key":"pone.0348842.ref037","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6434","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2013.2296561","article-title":"Fast SAR Image Segmentation via Merging Cost With Relative Common Boundary Length Penalty","volume":"52","author":"Shui Peng-Lang","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sensing"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref038","author":"S Fan","year":"2020"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0348842.ref039","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"134","DOI":"10.1049\/ip-rsn:20000400","article-title":"Optimal approach to SAR image segmentation and classification","volume":"147","author":"D Stewart","year":"2000","journal-title":"IEE Proc Radar Sonar Navig"},{"issue":"12","key":"pone.0348842.ref040","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1684","DOI":"10.1109\/83.730380","article-title":"Hybrid image segmentation using watersheds and fast region merging","volume":"7","author":"K Haris","year":"1998","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Image Process"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0348842.ref041","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"167","DOI":"10.1023\/B:VISI.0000022288.19776.77","article-title":"Efficient Graph-Based Image Segmentation","volume":"59","author":"PF Felzenszwalb","year":"2004","journal-title":"Int J Comput Vis"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0348842.ref042","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"345","DOI":"10.1145\/116873.116880","article-title":"Voronoi diagrams\u2014a survey of a fundamental geometric data structure","volume":"23","author":"F Aurenhammer","year":"1991","journal-title":"ACM Comput Surv"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref043","first-page":"518","article-title":"Generation of seamline network using area voronoi diagram with overlap","volume":"34","author":"J Pan","year":"2009","journal-title":"Geomat Inf Sci Wuhan Univ"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0348842.ref044","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"214","DOI":"10.1145\/965141.563896","article-title":"Hidden surface removal using polygon area sorting","volume":"11","author":"K Weiler","year":"1977","journal-title":"SIGGRAPH Comput Graph"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref045","author":"B Wang","year":"2015"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0348842.ref046","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"86","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2009.09.001","article-title":"Seam-line determination for image mosaicking: A technique minimizing the maximum local mismatch and the global cost","volume":"65","author":"J Chon","year":"2010","journal-title":"ISPRS J Photogramm Remote Sens"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref047","author":"M Duan","year":"2015"},{"key":"pone.0348842.ref048","volume-title":"Research on Automatic Seamline Detection Model and Its Application for Urban Orthoimage Mosaicking","author":"S Chen","year":"2019"}],"container-title":["PLOS One"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0348842","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]],"date-time":"2026-05-08T23:11:30Z","timestamp":1778281890000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0348842"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Armin","family":"Moghimi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"editor","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]]},"references-count":48,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0348842","relation":{},"ISSN":["1932-6203"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1932-6203","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]]}}}