Provided by: pktools_2.6.7.6+ds-6build1_amd64 
NAME
pkfilter - program to filter raster images
SYNOPSIS
pkfilter -i input -o output [-f filter | -srf file [-srf file]... | -fwhm value [-fwhm value]... ]
[options] [advanced options]
DESCRIPTION
pkfilter implements spatial and spectral filtering for raster data. In the spatial domain (X, Y), the
filter typically involves a rectangular convolution kernel (moving window). To avoid image shifting, the
size of the window should be odd (3, 5, 7, ...). You can set the window sizes in X and Y directions sep‐
arately with the options -dx and -dy. A circular kernel (disc) is applied if option -circ is set. An
overview of the supported filters (option -f|--filter) is given below. You can create customized filters
by defining your own filter taps (multiplicative elements of the filter kernel) via an ascii file (option
-tap). In the spectral/temporal domain (Z) you can filter multi-band raster inputs. The kernel filter
size can be set with the option -dz (use odd values only).
FILTERS IN SPATIAL (DX, DY) AND SPECTRAL/TEMPORAL (DZ) DOMAIN
The number of output bands equals number of input bands
Filter Description
dilate morphological dilation
erode morphological erosion
close morpholigical closing (dilate+erode)
open morpholigical opening (erode+dilate)
smoothnodata values smooth nodata values (set --nodata
option!)
Example: "Smooth" (interpolate) nodata in spectral/temporal domain (-dz 1), using a linear interpolation
pkfilter -i input.tif -o smoothed.tif -dz 1 -f smoothnodata -interp linear
Example: Filter input.tif in spatial domain with morphological dilation filter with kernel size 3x3.
pkfilter -i input.tif -o dilated.tif -dx 3 -dy 3 -f dilate
In case of moving window, the number of output bands equals number of input bands. In case dz=1, the
single output band is calculated as the result of the statistical function applied to all bands.
Filter Description
nvalid report number of valid (not nodata)
values in window
median perform a median filter in spatial
(dx, dy) or spectral/temporal (dz)
domain
var calculate variance in window
min calculate minimum in window
max calculate maximum in window
sum calculate sum in window
mean calculate mean in window
stdev calculate standard deviation in win‐
dow
savgolay Savitzky-Golay filter (check examples
page!)
percentile calculate percentile value in window
proportion calculate proportion in window
Example: Median filter in spatial domain
pkfilter -i input.tif -o median.tif -dx 3 -dy 3 -f median
Example: Calculate statistical variance in spectral/temporal domain (single output band)
pkfilter -i input.tif -o var.tif -dz 1 -f var
WAVELET FILTERS
The number of output bands equals number of input bands
Filter Description
dwt discrete wavelet transform
dwti discrete inverse wavelet transform
dwt_cut discrete wavelet + inverse transform,
using threshold option to cut per‐
centile of coefficients
Example: Calculate discrete wavelet in spatial domain
pkfilter -i lena.tif -o lena_dwt.tif -f dwt
Example: Calculate discrete wavelet in spectral/temporal domain
pkfilter -i timeseries.tif -o dwt.tif -f dwt -dz 1
The number of output bands equals number of input bands
Filter Description
dwt_cut_from discrete wavelet + inverse transform,
setting all high frequence coeffi‐
cients to zero (scale >= threshold)
Example: Calculate low frequency time series based on discrete wavelet + inverse transform in spec‐
tral/temporal domain, retaining only coefficients until scale 3.
pkfilter -i timeseries.tif -o lowfrequency.tif -f dwt_cut_from -dz 1 -t 4
FILTERS IN SPATIAL DOMAIN ONLY (DX, DY > 1 AND ODD).
The number of output bands equals number of input bands.
Filter Description
mrf Markov random field
ismin pixel is minimum?
ismax pixel is maximum?
shift perform a pixel shift in spatial win‐
dow
scramble scramble pixels in a spatial window
mode (majority voting) perform a majority voring (set
--class option)
sobelx horizontal edge detection
sobely vertical edge detection
sobelxy diagonal edge detection (NE-SW)
sobelyx diagonal edge detection (NW-SE)
countid count digital numbers in window
order rank pixels in order
density calculated the density
homog central pixel must be identical to
all other pixels within window
heterog central pixel must be different than
all other pixels within window
sauvola Sauvola's thresholding method
Example: Sobel edge detection in horizontal direction
pkfilter -i lena.tif -o sobelx.tif -f solbelx -dx 5 -dy 5
OPTIONS
-i filename, --input filename
input image
-o filename, --output filename
output classification image
-f filter, --filter filter
filter function (nvalid, median, var, min, max, sum, mean, dilate, erode, close, open, homog (cen‐
tral pixel must be identical to all other pixels within window), heterog (central pixel must be
different than all other pixels within window), sobelx (horizontal edge detection), sobely (verti‐
cal edge detection), sobelxy (diagonal edge detection NE-SW),sobelyx (diagonal edge detection NW-
SE), density, countid, mode (majority voting, only for classes), smoothnodata (smooth nodata val‐
ues only) values, ismin, ismax, order (rank pixels in order), stdev, mrf, dwt, dwti, dwt_cut,
dwt_cut_from, scramble, shift, savgolay, percentile, proportion)
-dx value, --dx value
filter kernel size in x, use odd values only
-dy value, --dy value
filter kernel size in y, use odd values only
-dz value, --dz value
filter kernel size in z (band or spectral dimension), must be odd (example: 3). Set dz>0 if 1-D
filter must be used in band domain
-nodata value, --nodata value
nodata value(s) (used for smoothnodata filter)
-v level, --verbose level
verbose mode if > 0
Advanced options
-circ, --circular
circular disc kernel for dilation and erosion
-r method, --resampling-method method
Resampling method for shifting operation (near: nearest neighbour, bilinear: bi-linear interpola‐
tion).
-co option, --co option
Creation option for output file. Multiple options can be specified.
-wt type, --wavelet type
wavelet type: daubechies,daubechies_centered, haar, haar_centered, bspline, bspline_centered
-wf family, --wf family
wavelet family (vanishing moment, see also http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/manual/html_node/DWT-
Initialization.html)
-class value, --class value
class value(s) to use for density, erosion, dilation, openening and closing, thresholding
-t threshold, --threshold threshold
threshold value(s) to use for threshold filter (one for each class), or threshold to cut for
dwt_cut (use 0 to keep all) or dwt_cut_from, or sigma for shift
-tap filename, --tap filename
text file containing taps used for spatial filtering (from ul to lr). Use dimX and dimY to speci‐
fy tap dimensions in x and y. Leave empty for not using taps
-tapz value, --tapz value
taps used for spectral filtering
-pad method, --pad method
Padding method for filtering (how to handle edge effects). Choose between: symmetric, replicate,
circular, constant (pad with 0).
-fwhm value, --fwhm value
list of full width half to apply spectral filtering (-fwhm band1 -fwhm band2 ...)
-srf filename, --srf filename
list of ASCII files containing spectral response functions (two columns: wavelength response)
-win col, --wavelengthIn col
column number of input ASCII file containing wavelengths
-wout value, --wavelengthOut value
list of wavelengths in output spectrum (-wout band1 -wout band2 ...)
-down value, --down value
down sampling factor. Use value 1 for no downsampling). Use value n>1 for downsampling (aggrega‐
tion)
-beta filename, --beta filename
ASCII file with beta for each class transition in Markov Random Field
-eps value, --eps value
error marging for linear feature
-l1, --l1
obtain longest object length for linear feature
-a1, --a1
obtain angle found for longest object length for linear feature
-a2, --a2
obtain angle found for shortest object length for linear feature
-interp type, --interp type
type of interpolation for spectral filtering (see http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/manu‐
al/html_node/Interpolation-Types.html)
-ot type, --otype type
Data type for output image ({Byte / Int16 / UInt16 / UInt32 / Int32 / Float32 / Float64 / CInt16 /
CInt32 / CFloat32 / CFloat64}). Empty string: inherit type from input image
-of GDALformat, --oformat GDALformat
Output image format (see also gdal_translate(1)).
-ct filename, --ct filename
color table (file with 5 columns: id R G B ALFA (0: transparent, 255: solid)). Use none to omit
color table
EXAMPLE
Filtering in spatial domain
Filter input.tif with morphological dilation filter. Use a circular kernel (instead of rectangular) of
size 3x3.
pkfilter -i input.tif -o filter.tif -dx 3 -dy 3 -f dilate -circ
Similar to previous example, but consider only values of 255 for filtering operation. Typical usage: di‐
late cloud values in input image that are flagged as 255
pkfilter -i input.tif -o filter.tif -dx 3 -dy 3 -class 255 -f dilate -circ
Filtering in spectral/temporal domain
Calculate the median value for each pixel, calculated on a moving window of width 3 (-dz 3) over all in‐
put bands. The output raster dataset will contain as many bands as the input raster dataset.
pkfilter -i input.tif -o filter_stdev.tif -dz 3 -f median
No moving window (-dz 1). Calculate the standard deviation for each pixel, calculated on all input
bands. The output raster dataset will contain a single band only.
pkfilter -i input.tif -o filter_stdev.tif -dz 1 -f stdev
"Smooth" (interpolate) nodata in spectral/temporal domain (-dz 1), using a linear interpolation. The
following interpolation types are supported: akima (default), linear, polynomial, cspline, cspline_peri‐
odic, akima_periodic (please check gsl ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/manual/html_node/
Interpolation-Types.html⟩ page for more information on the interpolation types).
pkfilter -i input.tif -o input_smoothed.tif -dz 1 -f smoothnodata -interp linear
01 April 2024 pkfilter(1)