Hyperspectral imaging
Cameras that record many narrow colour bands to identify materials from a distance.
China leads hyperspectral imaging research, with 71.4% of the 10% most cited papers published 2021–2025; the United States is second with 4.2%.
Added 14 October 2026. Its top papers were checked for relevance by AI, but its keywords and topic list have not yet been reviewed by hand.
Standings
Share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025; 851 papers. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method
Year by year
China
Everyone else, on a larger scale
Share of the 10% most cited papers published in each year. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method
Inside the field
Always the top 10%PilotEach paper sorted into one sub-area by an AI model reading its title and abstract, then credited as usual. On 200 hand-labelled papers it chose the same sub-area, or a defensible second, 92% of the time.
| Sub-area | Papers | First | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyperspectral image classification | 279 | CNChina71.3% | INIndia3.7% | ESSpain2.6% |
| Super-resolution and multispectral-hyperspectral fusion | 108 | CNChina83.0% | USUnited States3.1% | ITItaly2.5% |
| Anomaly, target and change detection | 106 | CNChina83.4% | USUnited States4.7% | ESSpain3.1% |
| Cross-scene, few-shot and domain-adaptive classification | 78 | CNChina83.9% | USUnited States5.2% | FRFrance1.7% |
| Multimodal fusion classification (with LiDAR, SAR) | 73 | CNChina79.0% | USUnited States4.1% | DEGermany3.7% |
| Environmental, vegetation and geological applications | 60 | CNChina44.2% | USUnited States4.5% | AUAustralia3.8% |
| Spectral unmixing | 33 | CNChina58.8% | USUnited States10.0% | FRFrance5.8% |
| Sensors, instruments, missions and computational imaging | 30 | CNChina37.9% | USUnited States22.8% | JPJapan6.3% |
| Denoising and restoration | 28 | CNChina75.4% | HKHong Kong9.3% | BEBelgium2.4% |
| Medical, food and industrial hyperspectral imaging | 16 | CNChina19.8% | ITItaly13.1% | ESSpain11.2% |
Share of each sub-area's papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method
Earlier and recent
The same top 10%, split into 2021–2023 and 2024–2025.
Greyed rows rest on fewer than five papers of credit in one period.
Share of the 10% most cited papers: 472 papers in 2021–2023, 379 in 2024–2025. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method
2026 so far: a different count
Not the most cited papers: every 2026 paper matched so far (1,865), and a paper counts in full for each country on it. This year's papers are too new to rank by citations, so these shares cannot be compared with the ones above.
- CNChina73.1%of 2026 papers have an author here
- USUnited States6.1%of 2026 papers have an author here
- INIndia5.5%of 2026 papers have an author here
- DEGermany2.9%of 2026 papers have an author here
- ESSpain2.8%of 2026 papers have an author here
Who cites the top papers
How much more often a country's top papers are cited from home than its size predicts. Expected is the country's share of all papers in the field; the bar is the excess, in percentage points. Home citers include authors citing their own earlier work.
Based on up to 100 of each country's most cited single-country papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method
Behind the share
Institutions with the most credit
- 1CNXidian University7.3%
- 2CNWuhan University4.5%
- 3CNBeijing Institute of Technology3.4%
- 4CNChinese Academy of SciencesGovernment lab2.9%
- 5CNNorthwestern Polytechnical University2.5%
- 6CNHunan University2.4%
- 7CNAerospace Information Research Institute2.2%
- 8CNChina University of Geosciences1.8%
- 9CNHarbin Institute of Technology1.8%
- 10CNHohai University1.5%
Share of the top 10%. Institutions across all 45 technologies
Who does the work
| Sector | All | CN | US | IN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universities | 86.5% | 89.0% | 84.8% | 83.9% |
| Research facilities | 6.1% | 4.8% | 5.8% | 0% |
| Government labs | 5.7% | 5.7% | 4.0% | 16.1% |
| Companies | 0.6% | 0.3% | 3.2% | 0% |
Share of credit by type of institution, overall and for the three leading countries.
Across borders
44.2% of the top 10% have authors in more than one country.
- CNUSChina with United States86
- AUCNAustralia with China47
- CNFRChina with France45
- CNESChina with Spain41
- CNGBChina with United Kingdom23
Most frequent pairings, by number of shared papers.
The papers behind the numbers
The five most cited papers this definition catches. If one looks out of place, the definition needs work.
- Spectral–Spatial Feature Tokenization Transformer for Hyperspectral Image ClassificationIEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2022CN755citations
- Weighted Feature Fusion of Convolutional Neural Network and Graph Attention Network for Hyperspectral Image ClassificationIEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 2022CN593citations
- BockNet: Blind-Block Reconstruction Network With a Guard Window for Hyperspectral Anomaly DetectionIEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2023CNES579citations
- Cross-city matters: A multimodal remote sensing benchmark dataset for cross-city semantic segmentation using high-resolution domain adaptation networksRemote Sensing of Environment, 2023548citations
- Multimodal Fusion Transformer for Remote Sensing Image ClassificationIEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2023CNDEESFRIN523citations
More in communications and sensing
- Satellite navigationChina leads
- Inertial navigationChina leads
- RadarChina leads
- Sonar and underwater acousticsChina leads
- Electronic warfareChina leads
- Optical communicationChina leads
- 6G and advanced wirelessChina leads
The most technologically advanced countries, and is China ahead of the US?
How this technology is defined
A paper counts if its title or abstract matches the search below. Articles in core journals and proceedings only; retracted papers are excluded.
hyperspectral OR "multispectral imaging" OR "imaging spectrometer"and its main topic in OpenAlex is one of: Remote-Sensing Image Classification; Advanced Image Fusion Techniques; Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy Techniques; Image and Signal Denoising Methods; Sparse and Compressive Sensing Techniques; Advanced Image Processing Techniques; Calibration and Measurement Techniques; Remote Sensing and LiDAR Applications. The topic check removes papers that only mention the technology.
- Papers matched, 2021–2025
- 8,547
- In the top 10%
- 851
- In the top 1%
- 88
- Countries with credit
- 54
- Credit with no known country
- 3.2%
Every one of the 991 most cited papers was checked for relevance; 42 were left out as not about hyperspectral imaging
The most cited of those left out:
- Explainable identification and mapping of trees using UAV RGB image and deep learning264 citations
- A Review of Practical AI for Remote Sensing in Earth Sciences194 citations
- Image Restoration for Remote Sensing: Overview and toolbox167 citations
- Improving above ground biomass estimates of Southern Africa dryland forests by combining Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery155 citations
- A Benchmarking Protocol for Pansharpening: Dataset, Preprocessing, and Quality Assessment133 citations
- Panchromatic and multispectral image fusion for remote sensing and earth observation: Concepts, taxonomy, literature review, evaluation methodologies and challenges ahead129 citations
- LRTCFPan: Low-Rank Tensor Completion Based Framework for Pansharpening120 citations
- Laplacian pyramid networks: A new approach for multispectral pansharpening106 citations
- Transformer-Based Regression Network for Pansharpening Remote Sensing Images106 citations
- Urban Tree Classification Based on Object-Oriented Approach and Random Forest Algorithm Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Multispectral Imagery98 citations
- Accurate water extraction using remote sensing imagery based on normalized difference water index and unsupervised deep learning94 citations
- Estimation of tree height and aboveground biomass of coniferous forests in North China using stereo ZY-3, multispectral Sentinel-2, and DEM data90 citations
Definition version 0.5, pilot. It is a plain text file: copy it, change it, rerun it.