GLEAM: Learning to Match and Explain in Cross-View Geo-Localization

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2509.07450v1
• Date: Tue, 09 Sep 2025 07:14:31 GMT
• Title: GLEAM: Learning to Match and Explain in Cross-View Geo-Localization
• Authors: Xudong Lu, Zhi Zheng, Yi Wan, Yongxiang Yao, Annan Wang, Renrui Zhang, Panwang Xia, Qiong Wu, Qingyun Li, Weifeng Lin, Xiangyu Zhao, Xue Yang, Hongsheng Li,
• Abstract summary: Cross-View Geo-Localization (CVGL) focuses on identifying correspondences between images captured from distinct perspectives of the same geographical location.<n>We present GLEAM-C, a foundational CVGL model that unifies multiple views and modalities-including UAV imagery, street maps, panoramic views, and ground photographs-by aligning them exclusively with satellite imagery.<n>To address the lack of interpretability in traditional CVGL methods, we propose GLEAM-X, which combines cross-view correspondence prediction with explainable reasoning.
• Score: 67.47128781638291
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Cross-View Geo-Localization (CVGL) focuses on identifying correspondences between images captured from distinct perspectives of the same geographical location. However, existing CVGL approaches are typically restricted to a single view or modality, and their direct visual matching strategy lacks interpretability: they merely predict whether two images correspond, without explaining the rationale behind the match. In this paper, we present GLEAM-C, a foundational CVGL model that unifies multiple views and modalities-including UAV imagery, street maps, panoramic views, and ground photographs-by aligning them exclusively with satellite imagery. Our framework enhances training efficiency through optimized implementation while achieving accuracy comparable to prior modality-specific CVGL models through a two-phase training strategy. Moreover, to address the lack of interpretability in traditional CVGL methods, we leverage the reasoning capabilities of multimodal large language models (MLLMs) to propose a new task, GLEAM-X, which combines cross-view correspondence prediction with explainable reasoning. To support this task, we construct a bilingual benchmark using GPT-4o and Doubao-1.5-Thinking-Vision-Pro to generate training and testing data. The test set is further refined through detailed human revision, enabling systematic evaluation of explainable cross-view reasoning and advancing transparency and scalability in geo-localization. Together, GLEAM-C and GLEAM-X form a comprehensive CVGL pipeline that integrates multi-modal, multi-view alignment with interpretable correspondence analysis, unifying accurate cross-view matching with explainable reasoning and advancing Geo-Localization by enabling models to better Explain And Match. Code and datasets used in this work will be made publicly accessible at https://github.com/Lucky-Lance/GLEAM.

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