Novel method for extraction of ship target with overlaps in SAR image via EM algorithm

The quality of synthetic aperture radar(SAR)image degrades in the case of multiple imaging projection planes(IPPs)and multiple overlapping ship targets,and then the performance of target classification and recognition can be influenced.For addressing this issue,a method for extracting ship targets with overlaps via the expectation maximization(EM)algorithm is pro-posed.First,the scatterers of ship targets are obtained via the target detection technique.Then,the EM algorithm is applied to extract the scatterers of a single ship target with a single IPP.Afterwards,a novel image amplitude estimation approach is pro-posed,with which the radar image of a single target with a sin-gle IPP can be generated.The proposed method can accom-plish IPP selection and targets separation in the image domain,which can improve the image quality and reserve the target information most possibly.Results of simulated and real mea-sured data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Deep convolutional neural network for meteorology target detection in airborne weather radar images

Considering the problem that the scattering echo images of airborne Doppler weather radar are often reduced by ground clutters,the accuracy and confidence of meteorology target detection are reduced.In this paper,a deep convolutional neural network(DCNN)is proposed for meteorology target detection and ground clutter suppression with a large collection of airborne weather radar images as network input.For each weather radar image,the corresponding digital elevation model(DEM)image is extracted on basis of the radar antenna scan-ning parameters and plane position,and is further fed to the net-work as a supplement for ground clutter suppression.The fea-tures of actual meteorology targets are learned in each bottle-neck module of the proposed network and convolved into deeper iterations in the forward propagation process.Then the network parameters are updated by the back propagation itera-tion of the training error.Experimental results on the real mea-sured images show that our proposed DCNN outperforms the counterparts in terms of six evaluation factors.Meanwhile,the network outputs are in good agreement with the expected mete-orology detection results(labels).It is demonstrated that the pro-posed network would have a promising meteorology observa-tion application with minimal effort on network variables or parameter changes.

A New Method of Multi-Focus Image Fusion Using Laplacian Operator and Region Optimization

Considering the continuous advancement in the field of imaging sensor, a host of other new issues have emerged. A major problem is how to find focus areas more accurately for multi-focus image fusion. The multi-focus image fusion extracts the focused information from the source images to construct a global in-focus image which includes more information than any of the source images. In this paper, a novel multi-focus image fusion based on Laplacian operator and region optimization is proposed. The evaluation of image saliency based on Laplacian operator can easily distinguish the focus region and out of focus region. And the decision map obtained by Laplacian operator processing has less the residual information than other methods. For getting precise decision map, focus area and edge optimization based on regional connectivity and edge detection have been taken. Finally, the original images are fused through the decision map. Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the other series of algorithms in terms of both subjective and objective evaluations.

Efficient Compressive Multi-Focus Image Fusion

Two key points of pixel-level multi-focus image fusion are the clarity measure and the pixel coeffi- cients fusion rule. Along with different improvements on these two points, various fusion schemes have been proposed in literatures. However, the traditional clarity measures are not designed for compressive imaging measurements which are maps of source sense with random or likely ran- dom measurements matrix. This paper presents a novel efficient multi-focus image fusion frame- work for compressive imaging sensor network. Here the clarity measure of the raw compressive measurements is not obtained from the random sampling data itself but from the selected Hada- mard coefficients which can also be acquired from compressive imaging system efficiently. Then, the compressive measurements with different images are fused by selecting fusion rule. Finally, the block-based CS which coupled with iterative projection-based reconstruction is used to re- cover the fused image. Experimental results on common used testing data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Joint Multi-Focus Fusion and Bayer ImageRestoration

In this paper, a joint multifocus image fusion and Bayer pattern image restoration algorithm for raw images of single-sensor colorimaging devices is proposed. Different from traditional fusion schemes, the raw Bayer pattern images are fused before colorrestoration. Therefore, the Bayer image restoration operation is only performed one time. Thus, the proposed algorithm is moreefficient than traditional fusion schemes. In detail, a clarity measurement of Bayer pattern image is defined for raw Bayer patternimages, and the fusion operator is performed on superpixels which provide powerful grouping cues of local image feature. Theraw images are merged with refined weight map to get the fused Bayer pattern image, which is restored by the demosaicingalgorithm to get the full resolution color image. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can obtain betterfused results with more natural appearance and fewer artifacts than the traditional algorithms.

Lira-YOLO: a lightweight model for ship detection in radar images

For the detection of marine ship objects in radar images, large-scale networks based on deep learning are difficult to be deployed on existing radar-equipped devices. This paper proposes a lightweight convolutional neural network, LiraNet, which combines the idea of dense connections, residual connections and group convolution, including stem blocks and extractor modules.The designed stem block uses a series of small convolutions to extract the input image features, and the extractor network adopts the designed two-way dense connection module, which further reduces the network operation complexity. Mounting LiraNet on the object detection framework Darknet, this paper proposes Lira-you only look once(Lira-YOLO), a lightweight model for ship detection in radar images, which can easily be deployed on the mobile devices. Lira-YOLO's prediction module uses a two-layer YOLO prediction layer and adds a residual module for better feature delivery. At the same time, in order to fully verify the performance of the model, mini-RD, a lightweight distance Doppler domain radar images dataset, is constructed. Experiments show that the network complexity of Lira-YOLO is low, being only 2.980 Bflops, and the parameter quantity is smaller, which is only 4.3 MB. The mean average precision(mAP) indicators on the mini-RD and SAR ship detection dataset(SSDD) reach 83.21% and 85.46%, respectively,which is comparable to the tiny-YOLOv3. Lira-YOLO has achieved a good detection accuracy with less memory and computational cost.

Three-dimensional positions of scattering centers reconstruction from multiple SAR images based on radargrammetry

A method and procedure is presented to reconstruct three-dimensional(3D) positions of scattering centers from multiple synthetic aperture radar(SAR) images. Firstly, two-dimensional(2D) attribute scattering centers of targets are extracted from 2D SAR images. Secondly, similarity measure is developed based on 2D attributed scatter centers' location, type, and radargrammetry principle between multiple SAR images. By this similarity, we can associate 2D scatter centers and then obtain candidate 3D scattering centers. Thirdly, these candidate scattering centers are clustered in 3D space to reconstruct final 3D positions. Compared with presented methods, the proposed method has a capability of describing distributed scattering center, reduces false and missing 3D scattering centers, and has fewer restrictionson modeling data. Finally, results of experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.

PAN-DeSpeck:A Lightweight Pyramid and Attention-Based Network for SAR Image Despeckling

SAR images commonly suffer fromspeckle noise,posing a significant challenge in their analysis and interpretation.Existing convolutional neural network(CNN)based despeckling methods have shown great performance in removing speckle noise.However,these CNN-basedmethods have a fewlimitations.They do not decouple complex background information in amulti-resolutionmanner.Moreover,they have deep network structures thatmay result in many parameters,limiting their applicability tomobile devices.Furthermore,extracting key speckle information in the presence of complex background is also a major problem with SAR.The proposed study addresses these limitations by introducing a lightweight pyramid and attention-based despeckling(PAN-Despeck)network.The primary objective is to enhance image quality and enable improved information interpretation,particularly on mobile devices and scenarios involving complex backgrounds.The PAN-Despeck network leverages domainspecific knowledge and integrates Gaussian Laplacian image pyramid decomposition for multi-resolution image analysis.By utilizing this approach,complex background information can be effectively decoupled,leading to enhanced despeckling performance.Furthermore,the attention mechanism selectively focuses on key speckle features and facilitates complex background removal.The network incorporates recursive and residual blocks to ensure computational efficiency and accelerate training speed,making it lightweight while maintaining high performance.Through comprehensive evaluations,it is demonstrated that PAN-Despeck outperforms existing image restoration methods.With an impressive average peak signal-to-noise ratio(PSNR)of 28.355114 and a remarkable structural similarity index(SSIM)of 0.905467,it demonstrates exceptional performance in effectively reducing speckle noise in SAR images.The source code for the PAN-DeSpeck network is available on GitHub.

Investigation of Simulating Radar Images Concerning the Multipath Scattering Effect

In the composed system of a target and rough surface, the electromagnetic scattering mechanism, especially the multipath scattering, is investigated. Using physical optics double bouncing algorithm, the multipath scattering model of the system has been established. Simulated by a wide-band radar signal and based on fractal rough surface, the artificial echo of the target has been obtained in virtue of the established multipath scattering model. By simulating to image the target in one dimension using the artificial echo, two kinds of range profiles are attained. It is found that one is from the target and the other is from the multipath scattering effect. Key words multipath scattering - radar imaging - rough surface scattering CLC number O 451 Foundation item: Supported by the Key Laboratory Foundation of National Defense Science and Technology (99JS93. 1. 2. JW1204)Biography: Yang Chun-hua(1978-), male, Ph. D candidate, research direction: radio wave propagation and wiresless communication.

A novel oil spill detection method from synthetic aperture radar imageries via a bidimensional empirical mode decomposition

Oil spills pose a major threat to ocean ecosystems and their health. Synthetic aperture radar（SAR） sensors can detect oil spills on the sea surface. These oil spills appear as dark spots in SAR images. However, dark formations can be caused by a number of phenomena. It is aimed to distinguishing oil spills or look-alike objects. A novel method based on a bidimensional empirical mode decomposition is proposed. The selected dark formations are first decomposed into several bidimensional intrinsic mode functions and the residue. Subsequently, 64 dimension feature sets are calculated using the Hilbert spectral analysis and five new features are extracted with a relief algorithm. Mahalanobis distances are then used for classification. Three data sets containing oil spills or look-alikes are used to test the accuracy rate of the method. The accuracy rate is more than 90%. The experimental results demonstrate that the novel method can detect oil spills validly and accurately.

Method of moving target detection based on sub-image cancellation for single-antenna airborne synthetic aperture radar

The method of moving target detection based on subimage cancellation for single-antenna airborne SAR is presented. First the subimage is obtained through frequency processing is pointed out. The imaging difference of a stationary objects and moving object in the subimage based on the frequency division is analyzed from the fundamental principle. Then the developed method combines the shear averaging algorithm to focus on the moving target in the subimage, after the clutter suppression and the focusing position in each subimage is obtained. Next the observation model and the relative movement of the moving targets between the subimages estimate the moving targets. The theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that the method is effective and can not only detect the moving targets, but also estimate their motion parameters precisely.

Electromagnetic scattering and imaging simulation of extremely large-scale sea-ship scene based on GPU parallel technology

Aiming to solve the bottleneck problem of electromagnetic scattering simulation in the scenes of extremely large-scale seas and ships,a high-frequency method by using graphics processing unit(GPU)parallel acceleration technique is proposed.For the implementation of different electromagnetic methods of physical optics(PO),shooting and bouncing ray(SBR),and physical theory of diffraction(PTD),a parallel computing scheme based on the CPU-GPU parallel computing scheme is realized to balance computing tasks.Finally,a multi-GPU framework is further proposed to solve the computational difficulty caused by the massive number of ray tubes in the ray tracing process.By using the established simulation platform,signals of ships at different seas are simulated and their images are achieved as well.It is shown that the higher sea states degrade the averaged peak signal-to-noise ratio(PSNR)of radar image.

Texture invariant estimation of equivalent number of looks based on log-cumulants in polarimetric radar imagery

A novel estimation of the equivalent number of looks (ENL) is proposed in statistical modeling of multilook polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) images for the product model, which is based on the log-determinant moments (LDM). The LDM estimators discovered by looking at certain log-cumulants of the intensities of different polarization channels and the multilook polarimetric covariance matrix, which can be used for both the Gaussian model and all product models. This estimator has analytic expressions, and uses the full covariance matrix and intensities as input, which makes more statistical information available. Experiments based on simulated data and real data are performed. The comparisons among the widely used methods of equivalent number of looks (ENL) estimation for the product model such as K and G0 distributions show that the performance of the LDM estimator is outstanding. The performance of estimators for the real data of San Francisco and Flevoland is analyzed and the results are according to those of simulated data. Finally, it can be concluded that the LDM estimator is well robust to each product model with low computational complexity and high accuracy. © 1990-2011 Beijing Institute of Aerospace Information.

Super-resolution reconstruction of synthetic-aperture radar image using adaptive-threshold singular value decomposition technique

A super-resolution reconstruction approach of radar image using an adaptive-threshold singular value decomposition (SVD) technique was presented,and its performance was analyzed,compared and assessed detailedly.First,radar imaging model and super-resolution reconstruction mechanism were outlined.Then,the adaptive-threshold SVD super-resolution algorithm,and its two key aspects,namely the determination method of point spread function (PSF) matrix T and the selection scheme of singular value threshold,were presented.Finally,the super-resolution algorithm was demonstrated successfully using the measured synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) images,and a Monte Carlo assessment was carried out to evaluate the performance of the algorithm by using the input/output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).Five versions of SVD algorithms,namely 1) using all singular values,2) using the top 80% singular values,3) using the top 50% singular values,4) using the top 20% singular values and 5) using singular values s such that s2≥max(s2)/rinSNR were tested.The experimental results indicate that when the singular value threshold is set as smax/(rinSNR)1/2,the super-resolution algorithm provides a good compromise between too much noise and too much bias and has good reconstruction results.

A novel algorithm for ocean wave direction inversion from X-band radar images based on optical flow method

As one of the important sea state parameters for navigation safety and coastal resource management, the ocean wave direction represents the propagation direction of the wave. A novel algorithm based on an optical flow method is developed for the ocean wave direction inversion of the ocean wave fields imaged by the X-band radar continuously. The proposed algorithm utilizes the echo images received by the X-band wave monitoring radar to estimate the optical flow motion, and then the actual wave propagation direction can be obtained by taking a weighted average of the motion vector for each pixel. Compared with the traditional ocean wave direction inversion method based on frequency-domain, the novel algorithm is fully using a time-domain signal processing method without determination of a current velocity and a modulation transfer function（MTF）. In the meantime,the novel algorithm is simple, efficient and there is no need to do something more complicated here. Compared with traditional ocean wave direction inversion method, the ocean wave direction of derived by using this proposed method matches well with that measured by an in situ buoy nearby and the simulation data. These promising results demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the algorithm proposed in the paper.

Improved Multi-channel Blind Image Restoration Algorithm for UWB Radar

The imaging problem of low signal to noise ratio （SNR）echo is very important for ultra-wide band （UWB） through-wall radar. An improved multi-channel blind image restoration algorithm based on sub-space and constrained least square （CLS） is presented and applied to UWB radar system to deal with this issue. The high resolution of radar image is equivalent to multi-channel blind image restoration based on the improved model of the through-wall radar echo. And a new cost function is proposed to the multi-channel blind image restoration by considering the concept of sub-space as the limitation of blur identification. The proposed algorithm has all advantages of CLS and sub-space, and converts the image estimation to alternating-minimizing the two cost functions. Experimental results prove that the proposed algorithm is effective at improving the resolution of radar image even at low SNR.

Optimum selection of common master image for ground deformation monitoring based on PS-DInSAR technique

Considering the joint effects of various factors such as temporal baseline, spatial baseline, thermal noise, the difference of Doppler centroid frequency and the error of data processing on the interference correlation, an optimum selection method of common master images for ground deformation monitoring based on the permanent scatterer and differential SAR interferometry （PS-DInSAR） technique is proposed, in which the joint correlation coeficient is used as the evaluation function. The principle and realization method of PS-DInSAR technology is introduced, the factors affecting the DInSAR correlation are analysed, and the joint correlation function model and its solution are presented. Finally an experiment for the optimum selection of common master images is performed by using 25 SAR images over Shanghai taken by the ERS-1/2 as test data. The results indicate that the optimum selection method for PS-DInSAR common master images is effective and reliable.

SAR image denoising based on wavelet-fractal analysis

Wavelet-fractal based SAR （synthetic aperture radar） image processing is one of the advanced technologies in image processing. The main concept of analysis is that after wavelet transformation, multifractal spectrum of the signal is different from that of noise. This difference is used to alleviate the noise produced by SAR image.The method to denoise SAR image using the process based on wavelet-fractai analysis is discussed in detail. Essentially, the present method focuses on adjusting the Hoelder exponent α of multifractal spectrum. After simulation, α should be adjusted to 1.72-1.73. The more the value of α exceeds 1.73, the less distinctive the edges of SAR image become. According to the authors denoising is optimal at α=1.72-1.73. In other words, when α =1.72-1.73, a smooth and denoised SAR image is produced.

Novel imaging methods of stepped frequency radar based on compressed sensing

The theory of compressed sensing （CS） provides a new chance to reduce the data acquisition time and improve the data usage factor of the stepped frequency radar system. In light of the sparsity of radar target reflectivity, two imaging methods based on CS, termed the CS-based 2D joint imaging algorithm and the CS-based 2D decoupled imaging algorithm, are proposed. These methods incorporate the coherent mixing operation into the sparse dictionary, and take random measurements in both range and azimuth directions to get high resolution radar images, thus can remarkably reduce the data rate and simplify the hardware design of the radar system while maintaining imaging quality. Ex- periments from both simulated data and measured data in the anechoic chamber show that the proposed imaging methods can get more focused images than the traditional fast Fourier trans- form method. Wherein the joint algorithm has stronger robustness and can provide clearer inverse synthetic aperture radar images, while the decoupled algorithm is computationally more efficient but has slightly degraded imaging quality, which can be improved by increasing measurements or using a robuster recovery algorithm nevertheless.

Root imaging from ground penetrating radar data by CPSO-OMP compressed sensing

As the amount of data produced by ground penetrating radar （GPR） for roots is large, the transmission and the storage of data consumes great resources. To alleviate this problem, we propose here a root imaging algorithm using chaotic particle swarm optimal （CPSO） compressed sensing based on GPR data according to the sparsity of root space. Radar data are decomposed, observed, measured and represented in sparse manner, so roots image can be reconstructed with limited data. Firstly, radar signal measurement and sparse representation are implemented, and the solution space is established by wavelet basis and Gauss random matrix; secondly, the matching function is considered as the fitness function, and the best fitness value is found by a PSO algorithm; then, a chaotic search was used to obtain the global optimal operator; finally, the root image is reconstructed by the optimal operators. A-scan data, B-scan data, and complex data from American GSSI GPR is used, respectively, in the experimental test. For B-scan data, the computation time was reduced 60 % and PSNR was improved 5.539 dB; for actual root data imaging, the reconstruction PSNR was 26.300 dB, and total computation time was only 67.210 s. The CPSO-OMP algorithm overcomes the problem of local optimum trapping and comprehensively enhances the precision during reconstruction.