# S-EO: A Large-Scale Dataset for Geometry-Aware Shadow Detection in Remote Sensing Applications

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.06920 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.06920/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 20 of its 51 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Apr 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [EfficientNet: Rethinking Model Scaling for Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11946/) (2019)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [MobileNetV2: Inverted Residuals and Linear Bottlenecks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.04381/) (2018)
- [Aggregated Residual Transformations for Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.05431/) (2016)
- [The Road Less Scheduled](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.15682/) (2024)
- [Stacked Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks for Jointly Learning Shadow Detection and Shadow Removal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.02478/) (2017)
- [Recalibrating Fully Convolutional Networks with Spatial and Channel 'Squeeze & Excitation' Blocks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.08127/) (2018)
- [Sat-NeRF: Learning Multi-View Satellite Photogrammetry With Transient Objects and Shadow Modeling Using RPC Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.08896/) (2022)
- [Direction-aware Spatial Context Features for Shadow Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.04142/) (2017)
- [Semantic Stereo for Incidental Satellite Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.08739/) (2018)
- [Shadow Neural Radiance Fields for Multi-view Satellite Photogrammetry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09877/) (2021)
- [Revisiting Shadow Detection: A New Benchmark Dataset for Complex World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.06998/) (2019)
- [SILT: Shadow-aware Iterative Label Tuning for Learning to Detect Shadows from Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12064/) (2023)
- [SparseSat-NeRF: Dense Depth Supervised Neural Radiance Fields for Sparse Satellite Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.00277/) (2023)
- [ShadowNeuS: Neural SDF Reconstruction by Shadow Ray Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.14086/) (2022)
- [SAT-NGP : Unleashing Neural Graphics Primitives for Fast Relightable Transient-Free 3D reconstruction from Satellite Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.18711/) (2024)
- [Towards Learning Neural Representations from Shadows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.15946/) (2022)
- [SUNDIAL: 3D Satellite Understanding through Direct, Ambient, and Complex Lighting Decomposition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.16215/) (2023)
- [Cumulative Assessment for Urban 3D Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.04622/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Diachronic Stereo Matching for Multi-Date Satellite Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.22808/) (2026)
- [ShadowGS: Shadow-Aware 3D Gaussian Splatting for Satellite Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.00939/) (2026)
- [SwiftGS: Episodic Priors for Immediate Satellite Surface Recovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.18634/) (2026)
- [deSEO: Physics-Aware Dataset Creation for High-Resolution Satellite Image Shadow Removal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.03610/) (2026)
- [After a Decade: Bringing Shadow Removal into the Real World with Agentic Training Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.38607/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce the S-EO dataset: a large-scale, high-resolution dataset, designed to advance geometry-aware shadow detection. Collected from diverse public-domain sources, including challenge datasets and government providers such as USGS, our dataset comprises 702 georeferenced tiles across the USA, each covering 500x500 m. Each tile includes multi-date, multi-angle WorldView-3 pansharpened RGB images, panchromatic images, and a ground-truth DSM of the area obtained from LiDAR scans. For each image, we provide a shadow mask derived from geometry and sun position, a vegetation mask based on the NDVI index, and a bundle-adjusted RPC model. With approximately 20,000 images, the S-EO dataset establishes a new public resource for shadow detection in remote sensing imagery and its applications to 3D reconstruction. To demonstrate the dataset's impact, we train and evaluate a shadow detector, showcasing its ability to generalize, even to aerial images. Finally, we extend EO-NeRF - a state-of-the-art NeRF approach for satellite imagery - to leverage our shadow predictions for improved 3D reconstructions.