A new technique for noise filtering of SAR interferometric phase images

Author

Lee, Jong-Sen ; Papathanassiou, Konstantinos P. ; Ainsworth, Thomas L. ; Grunes, Mitchell R. ; Reigber, Andreas

Author_Institution

Div. of Remote Sensing, Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC, USA

Volume

36

Issue

5

fYear

1998

fDate

9/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1456

Lastpage

1465

Abstract

This paper addresses the noise filtering problem for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometric phase images. The phase noise is characterized by an additive noise model. The model is verified with an L-band shuttle imaging radar (SIR)-C interferogram. An adaptive filtering algorithm based on this noise model is developed. It emphasizes filtering noise adaptively according to the local noise level and filtering along fringes using directionally dependent windows. This algorithm is effective, especially for the tightly packed fringes of X-band interferometry. Using simulated and SIR-C/X-SAR repeat-pass generated interferograms, the effectiveness of this filter is demonstrated by its capabilities in residue reduction, adaptive noise filtering, and its ability to filter areas with high fringe rates. In addition, a scheme of incorporating this filtering algorithm in iterative phase unwrapping using a least-squares method is proposed

Keywords

adaptive signal processing; geophysical signal processing; geophysical techniques; radar imaging; remote sensing by radar; spaceborne radar; synthetic aperture radar; InSAR; L-band; SAR interferometric phase image; SIR-C; X-SAR; X-band; adaptive filtering algorithm; additive noise model; geophysical measurement technique; interferometry; iterative phase unwrapping; land surface; least-squares method; noise filtering; radar imaging; radar remote sensing; repeat-pass generated interferogram; synthetic aperture radar; terrain mapping; Adaptive filters; Additive noise; Filtering algorithms; Interferometry; L-band; Noise level; Noise reduction; Phase noise; Radar imaging; Synthetic aperture radar;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0196-2892

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/36.718849

Filename

718849