An Optimized Algorithm for InSAR Phase Unwrapping Based on Particle Filtering, Matrix Pencil, and Region-Growing Techniques

This letter presents a new phase unwrapping algorithm for synthetic aperture radar interferometry which combines a particle filter, a matrix-pencil (MP) local slope estimator, and an optimized region-growing technique. The advantages of the new method rely on the following contributions: The MP estimator provides better resolution to the local slope estimation, the particle filter enables simultaneous unwrapping and filtering without a priori statistics constraints, and the implemented region-growing technique adds diversity of unwrapping paths and ensures an optimum solution. Results introduced in this letter illustrate the main aspects of the new approach.