Matej Batic

• PhD
• Group Leader at Sinergise

Over the past decades, there has been an explosion in the amount of available Earth Observation (EO) data. The unprecedented coverage of the Earth's surface and atmosphere by satellite imagery has resulted in large volumes of data that must be transmitted to ground stations, stored in data centers, and distributed to end users. Modern Earth System...

Over the past decades, there has been an explosion in the amount of available Earth observation (EO) data. The unprecedented coverage of Earth’s surface and atmosphere by satellite imagery has resulted in large volumes of data that must be transmitted to ground stations, stored in data centers, and distributed to end users. Modern Earth system mode...

Defining the borders of agricultural fields is fundamental for precision agriculture and one of the key parts of the new European Agricultural Policy. The agricultural fields’ boundaries are basic building blocks for monitoring agricultural land in the context of climate change, food production and security. The aim of the field delineation process...

Field boundaries are at the core of many agricultural applications and are a key enabler for the operational monitoring of agricultural production to support food security. Recent scientific progress in deep learning methods has highlighted the capacity to extract field boundaries from satellite and aerial images with a clear improvement from objec...

Field boundaries are at the core of many agricultural applications and are a key enabler for operational monitoring of agricultural production to support food security. Recent scientific progress in deep learning methods has highlighted the capacity to extract field boundaries from satellite and aerial images with a clear improvement from object-ba...

Cloud cover is a major limiting factor in exploiting time-series data acquired by optical spaceborne remote sensing sensors. Multiple methods have been developed to address the problem of cloud detection in satellite imagery and a number of cloud masking algorithms have been developed for optical sensors but very few studies have carried out quanti...

Global Earth Monitor (GEM, Horizon 2020) takes advantage of the large volumes of available Earth Observation (EO), weather, climate and other non-EO data to establish economically viable continuous monitoring of the Earth. Within the GEM framework, the development of scalable and cost-effective solutions is being tested on several use-cases, with c...

GEM project tries to: * Address the challenge of continuous monitoring of large areas in a sustainable and cost-effective way by establishing new and disruptive Earth Observation data-exploitation model of Copernicus data at a sustainable price. * Develop disruptive innovations with proprietary concept of Adjust- able Data Cubes and integrate them...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is paving the way for a new era of algorithms focusing directly on the information contained in the data, autonomously extracting relevant features for a given application. While the initial paradigm was to have these applications run by a server hosted processor, recent advances in microelectronics provide hardware acc...

BlueDot Observatory is establishing a global monitoring system for all at-risk water bodies. To delineate the current water extent, we developed an algorithm that checks for newly available Sentinel-2 data and processes the data using Sentinel Hub services to filter out clouds and identify water pixels.

Deep learning methods have become state-of-the-art in many vision, language, and signal processing tasks, due to their ability to extract patterns from complex high-dimensional input data. The majority of machine learning methods in Earth Observation to date fail to simultaneously describe spatial context (e.g. pixel-wise classifications) and tempo...

The true color composite is a widely used Earth observation product for displaying satellite imagery. As it is often used in communication with non-expert audiences in various media, it is desirable that such a product approximates the color perceived by the human eye. Additionally, as the Sentinel-2 mission with its high resolution multispectral i...

Perceptive Sentinel (http://www.perceptivesentinel.eu) is a EU funded project bringing together partners from Slovenia (Sinergise, Jozef Stefan Institute, Agricultural Institute of Slovenia), Austria (GeoVille), France (Magellium) and Denmark (Landbrug & Fodevarer) with the aim of democratising Earth Observation (EO) big data to benefit small and m...

Several total and partial photoionization cross section calculations, based on both theoretical and empirical approaches, are quantitatively evaluated with statistical analyses using a large collection of experimental data retrieved from the literature to identify the state of the art for modeling the photoelectric effect in Monte Carlo particle tr...

Several total and partial photoionization cross section calculations, based on both theoretical and empirical approaches, are quantitatively evaluated with statistical analyses using a large collection of experimental data retrieved from the literature to identify the state of the art for modeling the photoelectric effect in Monte Carlo particle tr...

This extended abstract briefly summarizes ongoing research activity on the evaluation and experimental validation of physics methods for photon and electron transport. The analysis includes physics models currently implemented in Geant4 as well as modeling methods used in other Monte Carlo codes, or not yet considered in general purpose Monte Carlo...

A systematic review of methods and data for the Monte Carlo simulation of photon interactions is in progress: it concerns a wide set of theoretical modeling approaches and data libraries available for this purpose. Models and data libraries are assessed quantitatively with respect to an extensive collection of experimental measurements documented i...

We present advances in the development of methods to predict the effect that uncertainties in physical data needed for generic Monte Carlo simulations induce on the observables resulting from the simulation. Under wide conditions the PDF for the input (uncertain) physical data determine univocally the PDF for the output of the simulation: this gene...

We introduce a theoretical framework for the calculation of uncertainties affecting observables produced by Monte Carlo particle transport, which derive from uncertainties in physical parameters input into simulation. The theoretical developments are complemented by a heuristic application, which illustrates the method of calculation in a streamlin...

Several models for the Monte Carlo simulation of Compton scattering on electrons are quantitatively evaluated with respect to a large collection of experimental data retrieved from the literature. Some of these models are currently implemented in general purpose Monte Carlo systems; some have been implemented and evaluated for possible use in Monte...

Various issues related to the complexity of apprais- ing the capabilities of physics models implemented in Monte Carlo simulation codes and the evolution of the functional quality the associated software are considered, such as the dependence on the experimental environment where the software operates and its sensitivity to detector characteristics...

Several physics methods for the simulation of the photoelectric effect are quantitatively evaluated with respect to a large collection of experimental data retrieved from the literature. They include theoretical and empirical calculations of total and partial cross sections, and calculations of the photoelectron angular distribution. Some of these...

The Coster–Kronig enhancement factor calculation for M3M3 shell x-ray production cross sections was found to be incorrect in both ISICSoo class (Batič et al. (2012) [1]) and isics program (Cipolla (2013) [2]). The affected functions of ISICSoo class have been corrected. The resulting X-ray production cross sections are modified by less than 15%, wh...

The simulation of radioactive decays is a common task in Monte-Carlo systems such as Geant4. Usually, a system either uses an approach focusing on the simulations of every individual decay or an approach which simulates a large number of decays with a focus on correct overall statistics. The radioactive decay package presented in this work permits,...

Geant4-based simulations of the energy deposited by electrons in various materials are quantitatively compared to high precision calorimetric measurements taken at Sandia Laboratories. The experimental data concern electron beams of energy between a few tens of keV and 1 MeV at various incidence angles. Two experimental scenarios are evaluated: the...

Radioactive decays are of concern in a wide variety of applications using Monte-Carlo simulations. In order to properly estimate the quality of such simulations, knowledge of the accuracy of the decay simulation is required. We present a validation of the original Geant4 Radioactive Decay Module, which uses a per-decay sampling approach, and of an...

The simulation of PIXE (Particle Induced X-ray Emission) is discussed in the context of general-purpose Monte Carlo systems for particle transport. Dedicated PIXE codes are mainly concerned with the application of the technique to elemental analysis, but they lack the capability of dealing with complex experimental configurations. General-purpose M...

We present results from a recently launched project to study computational issues related to the quantification of non statistical uncertainties in numerical (Monte Carlo) simulations: they derive from different areas of the process of simulation[1], like e.g. epistemic uncertainties[2], experimental errors in physical data, error propagation from...

Ongoing investigations for the improvement of Geant4 accuracy and computational performance resulting by refactoring and reengineering parts of the code are discussed. Issues in refactoring that are specific to the domain of physics simulation are identified and their impact is elucidated. Preliminary quantitative results are reported.

The Statistical Toolkit is an open source system specialized in the statistical comparison of distributions. It addresses requirements common to different experimental domains, such as simulation validation (e.g. comparison of experimental and simulated distributions), regression testing in the course of the software development process, and detect...

Recent efforts for the improvement of the accuracy of physics data libraries used in particle transport are summarized. Results are reported about a large scale validation analysis of atomic parameters used by major Monte Carlo systems (Geant4, EGS, MCNP, Penelope etc.); their contribution to the accuracy of simulation observables is documented. Th...

A comprehensive analysis of the effects of Geant4 algorithms for condensed transport in detectors is in progress. The first phase of the project focuses on electron multiple scattering, and studies two related observables: the longitudinal pattern of energy deposition in various materials, and the fraction of backscattered particles. The quality of...

We present validation measurements for the Geant4 radioactive decay simulation following a self-consistent approach. The validation is based on gamma spectroscopy measurements with HPGe and Nal detectors. In addition we present a re-designed radioactive decay simulation for Geant4, with extended functionality, such as support for long term activati...

Several models for the simulation of photon elastic scattering are quantitatively evaluated with respect to a large collection of experimental data retrieved from the literature. They include models based on the form factor approximation, on S-matrix calculations and on analytical parameterizations; they exploit publicly available data libraries an...

The assessment of the reliability of Monte Carlo simulations is discussed, with emphasis on uncertainty quantification and the related impact on experimental results. Methods and techniques to account for epistemic uncertainties, i.e. for intrinsic knowledge gaps in physics modeling, are discussed with the support of applications to concrete experi...

Three software systems, ERCS08, ISICS 2011 and \v{S}mit's code, that implement theoretical calculations of inner shell ionization cross sections by proton impact, are validated with respect to experimental data. The accuracy of the cross sections they generate is quantitatively estimated and inter-compared through statistical methods. Updates and e...

ISICS, originally a C language program for calculating K-, L- and M-shell ionization and X-ray production cross sections from ECPSSR and PWBA theory, has been reengineered into a C++ language class, named ISICSoo. The new software design enables the use of ISICS functionality in other software systems. The code, originally developed for Microsoft W...

A survey of atomic binding energies used by general purpose Monte Carlo systems is reported. Various compilations of these parameters have been evaluated; their accuracy is estimated with respect to experimental data. Their effects on physics quantities relevant to Monte Carlo particle transport are highlighted: X-ray fluorescence emission, electro...

The issue of how epistemic uncertainties affect the outcome of Monte Carlo simulation is discussed by means of a concrete use case: the simulation of the longitudinal energy deposition profile of low energy protons. A variety of electromagnetic and hadronic physics models is investigated, and their effects are analyzed. Possible systematic effects...

A system for in vivo tracking of 1 Ci 192Ir source during brachytherapy treatment has been built using high resistivity silicon pad detectors as image sensors and knife-edge lead pinholes as collimators. The sensors consist of 256 pads arranged in 32 ×8 grid with pad size and 1 mm thickness. The sensors have two metal layers, enabling connection of...

A system for in-vivo tracking of 192Ir source during high dose rate or pulsed dose rate brachytherapy treatment was built using 1 mm thick silicon pad detectors as image sensors and knife-edge lead pinholes as collimators. With source self-images obtained from a dual-pinhole system location of the source could be reconstructed in three dimensions i...

A system for in vivo tracking of 192Ir source during high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatments has been built using silicon pad detectors as image sensors and knifeedge lead pinholes as collimators. HDR brachytherapy utilizes moving a small (2-4 mm long) radioactive (usually 192Ir) source within body cavity or tumor to deliver fractionated ther...

Annealing of effective trapping times of electrons and holes in neutron irradiated silicon detectors was measured at different temperatures 40, 60, . The evolution of effective trapping times seems to be governed by the first-order process. The effective trapping probability of holes was found to increase by 40% and of electrons to decrease by 20%...