A wavelet based targets detection method for high resolution airborne SAR data

A wavelet based automatic targets detection method for high resolution airborne SAR data is described in this article to receive faster and more accuracy detection. This method is based on the assumption that man-made objects are easily detectable at low resolution because their scattering is more persistent than that of natural objects. The algorithm involves an improved wavelet soft threshold filter (IWSTF) and a wavelet based RCCFAR detector. In order to retain the target feature, the wavelet soft threshold filter is improved by the strategy used in the enhanced Lee filter. Instead of using a global threshold, we adopted an adaptive threshold calculated according to the detail coefficients in each scale. To accelerate the RCCFAR detector, two RCCFAR detectors are used. One is first applied to the approximate coefficients to make a coarse detection. The other one is applied to the filtered images in those regions which are regarded as candidate targets. Performance of the algorithm is assessed by some high resolution airborne SAR image and it shows that the algorithm can effectively reduce false alarms caused by speckles.