CrossEarth-SAR: A SAR-Centric and Billion-Scale Geospatial Foundation Model for Domain Generalizable Semantic Segmentation
Organizations: Fudan University · Shanghai Innovation Institute · Shanghai Jiao Tong University · Beijing Institute of Technology ·
Abstract
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) enables global, all-weather earth observation. However, owing to diverse imaging mechanisms, domain shifts across sensors and regions severely hinder its semantic generalization. To address this, we present CrossEarth-SAR, the first billion-scale SAR vision foundation model built upon a novel physics-guided sparse mixture-of-experts (MoE) architecture incorporating physical descriptors, explicitly designed for cross-domain semantic segmentation. To facilitate large-scale pre-training, we develop CrossEarth-SAR-200K, a weakly and fully supervised dataset that unifies public and private SAR imagery. We also introduce a benchmark suite comprising 22 sub-benchmarks across 8 distinct domain gaps, establishing the first unified standard for domain generalization semantic segmentation on SAR imagery. Extensive experiments demonstrate that CrossEarth-SAR achieves state-of-the-art results on 20 benchmarks, surpassing previous methods by over 10% mIoU on some benchmarks under multi-gap transfer. All code, benchmark and datasets will be publicly available.
Figures & tables
| Domain Gap | Dataset | Source Domain | Target Domain | Abbreviation | Train | Test | Categories |
| Unseen Region | AIR-PolSAR-Seg 2.0 [ 70 ] | North | South | N2S | 600 | 159 | 5 |
| South | North | S2N | 633 | 150 | 5 | ||
| DDHR-SK [ 37 ] | KR | CN | K2C | 4916 | 1566 | 6 | |
| CN | KR | C2K | 6265 | 1229 | 6 | ||
| Unseen Polarization | AIR-PolSAR-Seg 2.0 [ 70 ] | VV | Full | VV2F | 1233 | 309 | 6 |
| Full | VV | F2VV | 6 |
| Method | Backbone | Param. | Unseen Region | Unseen Polarization | Unseen Complex Value | Avg. | |||||||||
| N2S | S2N | K2C | C2K | VV2F | F2VV | HH2F | F2HH | C(r)2R | R2C(r) | C(i)2R | R2C(i) | ||||
| S12-MoCo [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 20M | 23.2 | 24.0 | 8.9 | 18.6 | 21.9 | 16.1 | 19.8 | 29.9 | 29.9 | 48.1 | 29.3 | 37.7 | 25.6 |
| S12-DINO [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 20M | 22.5 | 27.0 | 12.6 | 30.8 | 23.0 | 37.5 | 15.7 | 35.1 | 25.0 | 59.0 | 23.4 | 55.0 | 30.5 |
| S12-MAE [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 20M | 22.9 | 29.9 | 5.9 | 34.8 | 12.8 | 17.7 | 12.6 | 15.6 | 23.7 | 33.3 | 19.5 | 22.8 | 21.0 |
| DOFA [ 60 ] | ViT-B [ 7 ] | 80M | 25.3 | 27.5 | 15.8 | 31.9 | 20.4 | 30.7 | 21.6 | 30.6 | 24.6 | 42.6 | 24.7 | 26.3 | 26.8 |
| SatMAE [ 5 ] | ViT-L [ 7 ] | 300M | 26.2 | 32.1 | 14.5 | 33.4 | 22.5 | 33.4 | 17.1 | 30.0 | 46.4 | 34.4 | 43.4 | 35.6 | 30.7 |
| Method | Backbone | Param. | Unseen Region and Polarization | Unseen Region and Platform | Unseen Region and MW Band | Unseen Region and Pol, MW Band | Unseen Region and Platform, MW Band | Avg. | |||||
| F2A | A2F | O2D | D2O | S2A | A2S | D2F | F2D | W2D | D2W | ||||
| S12-MoCo [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 20M | 7.4 | 14.7 | 5.5 | 8.1 | 45.2 | 42.2 | 6.7 | 17.4 | 10.3 | 5.2 | 16.3 |
| S12-DINO [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 20M | 8.9 | 23.6 | 4.3 | 9.5 | 53.9 | 51.1 | 15.5 | 15.9 | 13.6 | 10.1 | 20.6 |
| S12-MAE [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 20M | 12.1 | 11.4 | 5.3 | 8.8 | 31.3 | 51.8 | 19.6 | 16.1 | 11.9 | 14.8 | 18.3 |
| DOFA [ 60 ] | ViT-B [ 7 ] | 80M | 10.3 | 22.3 | 4.8 | 10.2 | 50.9 | 27.5 | 8.3 | 16.0 | 12.3 | 12.5 | 17.5 |
| SatMAE [ 5 ] | ViT-L [ 7 ] | 300M | 11.8 | 13.1 | 12.1 | 9.9 | 49.2 | 48.1 | 20.3 | 17.5 | 10.2 | 7.7 | 20.0 |
| Method with CPT dataset | N2S | VV2F | C(r)2R | A2F | O2D | S2A | D2F | W2D | avg. |
| DINOv2 + 40K real label datasets | 32.7 | 68.6 | 67.7 | 16.3 | 16.1 | 52.9 | 20.4 | 17.1 | 36.5 |
| DINOv2 + 40K pseudo label datasets (randomly selected) | 33.2 | 66.3 | 66.9 | 18.6 | 17.2 | 53.6 | 21.3 | 17.6 | 36.8 |
| DINOv2 + CrossEarth-SAR- 200K | 36.6 | 70.6 | 74.5 | 23.4 | 19.7 | 55.2 | 21.9 | 18.9 | 40.1 |
| CrossEarth-SAR | 37.8 | 73.8 | 76.4 | 25.0 | 23.7 | 59.1 | 25.1 | 22.2 | 42.9 |
| Datasets | Resolution (m) | Band | Polarization | Satellites |
| QXS-SAROPT [ 15 ] | 1m | C | VV | Gaofen-3 |
| WHU-SEN-City [ 46 ] | 20-22m | C | VV, VH | Sentinel-1 |
| SEN12 [ 40 ] | 10m | C | VV, VH | Sentinel-1 |
| Osdataset [ 58 ] | 1m | C | VV | Gaofen-3 |
| SARptical [ 49 ] | 1m | X | VV, HH | TerraSAR-X |
| DDHR-X [ 37 ] | 1m | C | VV | Gaofen-3 |
| Method | Backbone | Domain | Classes | mIoU (%) | Domain | Classes | mIoU (%) | |||||||||
| Source Unseen | Bldg | Grnd | Road | Veg | Wtr | Source Unseen | Bldg | Farm | Green | Otr | Road | Wtr | ||||
| SARATR-X [ 13 ] | HiViT-B [ 59 ] | N2S (Unseen Region) | 55.6 | 5.7 | 23.1 | 31.6 | 20.3 | 28.4 | K2C (Unseen Region) | 35.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 5.9 |
| S12-MoCo [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 54.1 | 3.9 | 7.3 | 32.3 | 31.6 | 23.2 | 37.4 | 0.0 | 16.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 8.9 | ||
| S12-DINO [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 48.0 | 4.0 | 3.6 | 32.6 | 35.8 | 22.5 | 43.1 | 0.0 | 12.9 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 19.6 | 12.6 | ||
| S12-MAE [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 48.5 | 4.1 | 5.2 | 28.7 | 28.6 | 22.9 | 35.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 5.9 | ||
| DOFA [ 60 ] | ViT-B [ 7 ] | 53.0 | 12.9 | 10.3 | 28.9 | 21.4 | 25.3 | 54.1 | 0.0 | 23.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 17.3 | 15.8 | ||
| Method | Backbone | Domain | Classes | mIoU (%) | Domain | Classes | mIoU (%) | ||||||||||
| Source Unseen | Bldg | Grnd | Mnt | Road | Veg | Wtr | Source Unseen | Bldg | Grnd | Mnt | Road | Veg | Wtr | ||||
| SARATR-X [ 13 ] | HiViT-B [ 59 ] | VV2F (Unseen Polarization) | 67.3 | 35.0 | 81.7 | 49.3 | 58.3 | 51.2 | 57.1 | HH2F (Unseen Polarization) | 61.0 | 23.4 | 73.3 | 33.4 | 55.7 | 44.6 | 48.6 |
| S12-MoCo [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 10.5 | 14.6 | 27.2 | 3.5 | 40.2 | 35.6 | 21.9 | 4.3 | 11.9 | 33.6 | 2.6 | 38.2 | 28.5 | 19.8 | ||
| S12-DINO [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 21.3 | 7.4 | 41.8 | 2.3 | 32.1 | 32.8 | 23.0 | 33.0 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 32.8 | 25.8 | 15.7 | ||
| S12-MAE [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 2.8 | 3.8 | 4.0 | 1.1 | 36.2 | 28.6 | 12.8 | 3.4 | 4.8 | 7.0 | 0.9 | 35.4 | 24.1 | 12.6 | ||
| DOFA [ 60 ] | ViT-B [ 7 ] | 46.2 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 45.5 | 29.4 | 20.4 | 52.0 | 2.4 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 48.6 | 26.5 | 21.6 | ||
| Method | Backbone | Domain | Classes | mIoU (%) | Domain | Classes | mIoU (%) | ||||||||||
| Source Unseen | Bldg | Grnd | Mnt | Road | Veg | Wtr | Source Unseen | Bldg | Grnd | Mnt | Road | Veg | Wtr | ||||
| SARATR-X [ 13 ] | HiViT-B [ 59 ] | C(r)2R (Unseen Number Type) | 71.0 | 24.2 | 0.0 | 34.7 | 61.3 | 60.4 | 73.8 | C(i)2R (Unseen Number Type) | 74.0 | 31.6 | 22.0 | 37.8 | 66.0 | 63.5 | 72.3 |
| S12-MoCo [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 59.3 | 12.4 | 0.9 | 7.6 | 47.0 | 52.4 | 29.9 | 59.1 | 8.0 | 1.0 | 7.7 | 49.2 | 51.0 | 29.3 | ||
| S12-DINO [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 56.2 | 4.7 | 0.0 | 1.6 | 46.1 | 41.5 | 25.0 | 54.9 | 4.3 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 41.3 | 37.8 | 23.4 | ||
| S12-MAE [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 53.8 | 3.7 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 46.3 | 37.4 | 23.7 | 49.7 | 0.9 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 31.0 | 35.4 | 19.5 | ||
| DOFA [ 60 ] | ViT-B [ 7 ] | 54.3 | 4.8 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 47.1 | 40.8 | 24.6 | 54.3 | 8.9 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 45.1 | 39.5 | 24.7 | ||
| Method | Backbone | Domain | Classes | mIoU (%) | Domain | Classes | mIoU (%) | |||||||||
| Source Unseen | Bldg | Otr | Road | Veg | Wtr | Source Unseen | Bldg | Farm | Green | Otr | Road | Wtr | ||||
| SARATR-X [ 13 ] | HiViT-B [ 59 ] | F2A (Unseen Region and Polarization) | 0.0 | 5.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 15.2 | 13.0 | O2D (Unseen Region and Platform) | 5.4 | 0.0 | 22.3 | 2.1 | 0.0 | 2.6 | 5.4 |
| S12-MoCo [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 0.0 | 4.3 | 0.0 | 17.4 | 15.1 | 7.4 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 21.4 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 10.3 | 5.5 | ||
| S12-DINO [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 0.0 | 2.8 | 0.0 | 32.6 | 9.0 | 8.9 | 3.6 | 0.0 | 15.5 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 4.2 | 4.3 | ||
| S12-MAE [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 0.0 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 35.3 | 22.0 | 12.1 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 21.2 | 0.9 | 0.0 | 8.7 | 5.4 | ||
| DOFA [ 60 ] | ViT-B [ 7 ] | 0.0 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 30.3 | 17.6 | 10.3 | 4.5 | 0.0 | 20.8 | 2.6 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 4.8 | ||
| Method | Backbone | Domain | Classes | mIoU (%) | Domain | Classes | mIoU (%) | |||||||||
| Source Unseen | Bldg | Otr | Road | Veg | Wtr | Source Unseen | Bldg | Farm | Green | Otr | Road | Wtr | ||||
| SARATR-X [ 13 ] | HiViT-B [ 59 ] | D2F (Unseen Region, Polarization and Microwave Band) | 12.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 21.7 | W2D (Unseen Region, Polarization and Microwave Band) | 0.0 | 0.0 | 23.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 50.4 | 12.2 |
| S12-MoCo [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 15.2 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 22.0 | 1.9 | 6.7 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 22.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 39.0 | 10.3 | ||
| S12-DINO [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 18.9 | 19.4 | 0.0 | 25.5 | 13.6 | 15.5 | 7.4 | 11.8 | 20.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 41.7 | 13.6 | ||
| S12-MAE [ 43 ] | ViT-S [ 7 ] | 18.3 | 3.7 | 0.2 | 27.1 | 48.5 | 19.6 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 22.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 48.8 | 11.9 | ||
| DOFA [ 60 ] | ViT-B [ 7 ] | 15.8 | 4.9 | 0.1 | 13.6 | 7.0 | 8.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 22.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 51.5 | 12.3 | ||