A fuzzy block adaptive quantizer (FBAQ) for synthetic aperture radar

The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technique relies on the relative motion between the target and the sensor on a moving platform. Although the antenna dimensions are small a high resolution in flight direction is achieved which is independent of range. SAR proves to be an adequate tool to observe the earth surface due to its independency of daylight. The large amount of arising raw data is one disadvantage and becomes one limiting factor for enhanced systems. These data are called raw data, because high resolution images are obtained only after sophisticated processing Thus it seems absolutely necessary to look for algorithms to reduce the amount of raw data. One solution represents the block adaptive quantizer. Raw data are divided into blocks of equal size. Data are quantized due to the blocks specific statistics. Up to now, a reduction factor of four is nearly achieved without decreasing image quality