How Many Independent Samples Does a Satellite Image Contain? Generalization Bounds for Spatially Dependent Data

Excerpt

arXiv:2610.08227v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Machine learning classifiers for remote sensing imagery are typically evaluated as though every pixel were an independent sample. Spatial autocorrelation violates this assumption, since neighboring pixels carry redundant information which inflates sample sizes. How many independent samples does a satellite image actually contain? For an $n \times n$ image whose spatial correlation persists over a range of $r$ pixels, the effective sample size is