Compression of RADARSAT data with block adaptive wavelets

Summary form only given. A new algorithm, referred to as the wavelet packet-based embedded blocking code (WPEB), was developed for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data compression. This algorithm combines the different properties of wavelet packet decomposition, block coding, and speckle reduction. Better results were obtained by using the wavelet packet transform that decomposes the higher frequencies. The higher coding efficiency can be obtained by dynamically allocating bits according to block variances. The examples using RADARSAT data have shown that compression performance is better than conventional wavelet methods. Visual image interpretation was found acceptable at 1 bpp.