The multilook polarimetric whitening filter (MPWF) for intensity speckle reduction in polarimetric SAR images

Author

Liu, Guoqing ; Huang, Shunji ; Torre, A. ; Rubertone, F.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., Univ. of Electron. Sci. & Technol. of China, Chengdu, China

Volume

36

Issue

3

fYear

1998

fDate

5/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1016

Lastpage

1020

Abstract

The polarimetric whitening filter (PWF) proposed by Novak et al. is extended to the multilook case to form a multilook PWF (MPWF) fur intensity speckle reduction in multilook polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The MPWF optimally processes the multilook covariance matrix to generate a minimum-speckle intensity image. The amount of speckle reduction achievable by using the MPWF is quantified. The authors also show that the MPWF is equivalent to a maximum likelihood (ML) filter. Experimental results with the NAS/Jet propulsion laboratory (JPL) airborne L-band, four-look polarimetric SAR data demonstrate the effectiveness of the MPWF

Keywords

geophysical signal processing; geophysical techniques; radar imaging; radar polarimetry; remote sensing by radar; speckle; synthetic aperture radar; SAR image; covariance matrix; geophysical measurement technique; intensity speckle reduction; land surface; minimum-speckle intensity image; multilook polarimetric whitening filter; radar polarimetry; radar remote sensing; speckle reduction; synthetic aperture radar; terrain mapping; Covariance matrix; Filters; Laboratories; Maximum likelihood detection; Maximum likelihood estimation; NASA; Polarization; Radar imaging; Speckle; Synthetic aperture radar;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0196-2892

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/36.673694

Filename

673694