# REJEPA: A Novel Joint-Embedding Predictive Architecture for Efficient Remote Sensing Image Retrieval

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.03169 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.03169/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 32 of its 44 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 4 Apr 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 32)

- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05709/) (2020)
- [DINOv2: Learning Robust Visual Features without Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.07193/) (2023)
- [Masked Autoencoders Are Scalable Vision Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.06377/) (2021)
- [Emerging Properties in Self-Supervised Vision Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.14294/) (2021)
- [VICReg: Variance-Invariance-Covariance Regularization for Self-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.04906/) (2021)
- [Self-Supervised Learning from Images with a Joint-Embedding Predictive Architecture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.08243/) (2023)
- [iBOT: Image BERT Pre-Training with Online Tokenizer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.07832/) (2021)
- [data2vec: A General Framework for Self-supervised Learning in Speech, Vision and Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.03555/) (2022)
- [SatMAE: Pre-training Transformers for Temporal and Multi-Spectral Satellite Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.08051/) (2022)
- [Functional Map of the World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.07846/) (2017)
- [Scale-MAE: A Scale-Aware Masked Autoencoder for Multiscale Geospatial Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.14532/) (2022)
- [Masked Siamese Networks for Label-Efficient Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.07141/) (2022)
- [Geography-Aware Self-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.09980/) (2020)
- [CROMA: Remote Sensing Representations with Contrastive Radar-Optical Masked Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.00566/) (2023)
- [Advancing Plain Vision Transformer Towards Remote Sensing Foundation Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.03987/) (2022)
- [Self-supervised Learning in Remote Sensing: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.13188/) (2022)
- [Dense Text Retrieval based on Pretrained Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.14876/) (2022)
- [Efficient Self-supervised Learning with Contextualized Target Representations for Vision, Speech and Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.07525/) (2022)
- [BigEarthNet-MM: A Large Scale Multi-Modal Multi-Label Benchmark Archive for Remote Sensing Image Classification and Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.07921/) (2021)
- [Rethinking Transformers Pre-training for Multi-Spectral Satellite Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.05419/) (2024)
- [Masked Vision and Language Modeling for Multi-modal Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.02131/) (2022)
- [OmniSat: Self-Supervised Modality Fusion for Earth Observation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.08351/) (2024)
- [A Billion-scale Foundation Model for Remote Sensing Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.05215/) (2023)
- [Predicting Gradient is Better: Exploring Self-Supervised Learning for SAR ATR with a Joint-Embedding Predictive Architecture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.15153/) (2023)
- [Masked Image Modeling with Denoising Contrast](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.09616/) (2022)
- [Geographical Knowledge-driven Representation Learning for Remote Sensing Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.05276/) (2021)
- [Masked Angle-Aware Autoencoder for Remote Sensing Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.01946/) (2024)
- [Exploring Masked Autoencoders for Sensor-Agnostic Image Retrieval in Remote Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07782/) (2024)
- [Deep Learning for Image Search and Retrieval in Large Remote Sensing Archives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.01613/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [MAESTRO: Masked AutoEncoders for Multimodal, Multitemporal, and Multispectral Earth Observation Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.10894/) (2025)
- [LEPA: Learning Geometric Equivariance in Satellite Remote Sensing Data with a Predictive Architecture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.07246/) (2026)
- [Rethinking Electro-Optical Vision Foundation Models for Remote Sensing Retrieval: A Controlled Comparison with Generalist VFM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.02283/) (2026)
- [CR-JEPA: Cross-Modal Joint-Embedding Predictive Learning for Remote Sensing Image Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.00706/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The rapid expansion of remote sensing image archives demands the development of strong and efficient techniques for content-based image retrieval (RS-CBIR). This paper presents REJEPA (Retrieval with Joint-Embedding Predictive Architecture), an innovative self-supervised framework designed for unimodal RS-CBIR. REJEPA utilises spatially distributed context token encoding to forecast abstract representations of target tokens, effectively capturing high-level semantic features and eliminating unnecessary pixel-level details. In contrast to generative methods that focus on pixel reconstruction or contrastive techniques that depend on negative pairs, REJEPA functions within feature space, achieving a reduction in computational complexity of 40-60% when compared to pixel-reconstruction baselines like Masked Autoencoders (MAE). To guarantee strong and varied representations, REJEPA incorporates Variance-Invariance-Covariance Regularisation (VICReg), which prevents encoder collapse by promoting feature diversity and reducing redundancy. The method demonstrates an estimated enhancement in retrieval accuracy of 5.1% on BEN-14K (S1), 7.4% on BEN-14K (S2), 6.0% on FMoW-RGB, and 10.1% on FMoW-Sentinel compared to prominent SSL techniques, including CSMAE-SESD, Mask-VLM, SatMAE, ScaleMAE, and SatMAE++, on extensive RS benchmarks BEN-14K (multispectral and SAR data), FMoW-RGB and FMoW-Sentinel. Through effective generalisation across sensor modalities, REJEPA establishes itself as a sensor-agnostic benchmark for efficient, scalable, and precise RS-CBIR, addressing challenges like varying resolutions, high object density, and complex backgrounds with computational efficiency.