Power of SAR Imagery and Machine Learning in Monitoring Ulva prolifera:A Case Study of Sentinel-1 and Random Forest

Automatically detecting Ulva prolifera(U.prolifera)in rainy and cloudy weather using remote sensing imagery has been a long-standing problem.Here,we address this challenge by combining high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR)imagery with the machine learning,and detect the U.prolifera of the South Yellow Sea of China(SYS)in 2021.The findings indicate that the Random Forest model can accurately and robustly detect U.prolifera,even in the presence of complex ocean backgrounds and speckle noise.Visual inspection confirmed that the method successfully identified the majority of pixels containing U.prolifera without misidentifying noise pixels or seawater pixels as U.prolifera.Additionally,the method demonstrated consistent performance across different im-ages,with an average Area Under Curve(AUC)of 0.930(+0.028).The analysis yielded an overall accuracy of over 96%,with an average Kappa coefficient of 0.941(+0.038).Compared to the traditional thresholding method,Random Forest model has a lower estimation error of 14.81%.Practical application indicates that this method can be used in the detection of unprecedented U.prolifera in 2021 to derive continuous spatiotemporal changes.This study provides a potential new method to detect U.prolifera and enhances our under-standing of macroalgal outbreaks in the marine environment.

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.

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.

IMAGING AND MTI PROCESSING BASED ON DUAL-FREQUENCIES DUAL-APERTURES SPACEBORNE SAR

Based on dual-frequencies dual-apertures spaceborne SAR （Synthetic Aperture Radar）, a new SAR system with four receiving channels and two operation modes is presented in this paper, SAR imaging and Moving Target Indication （MTI） are studied in this system. High resolution imaging with wide swath is implemented by the Mode Ⅰ, and MTI is completed by the Mode Ⅱ. High azimuth resolution is achieved by the Displaced Phase Center （DPC） multibeam technique. And the Coherent Accumulation （CA） method, which combines dual channels data of different carrier frequency, is used to enhance the range resolution. For the data of different carrier frequency, the two aperture interferometric processing is executed to implement clutter cancellation, respectively. And the couple of clutter suppressed data are employed to implement Dual Carrier Frequency Conjugate Processing （DCFCP）, then both slow and fast moving targets detection can be completed, followed by moving target imaging. The simulation results show the validity of the signal processing method of this new SAR system.

CROSS-TRACK THREE APERTURES MILLIMETER WAVE SAR SIDE-LOOKING THREE-DIMENSIONAL IMAGING

The airborne cross-track three apertures MilliMeter Wave (MMW) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) side-looking three-Dimensional (3D) imaging is investigated in this paper. Three apertures are distributed along the cross-track direction, and three virtual phase centers will be obtained through one-input and three-output. These three virtual phase centers form a sparse array which can be used to obtain the cross-track resolution. Because the cross-track array is short, the cross-track resolution is low. When the system works in side-looking mode, the cross-track resolution and height resolution will be coupling, and the low cross-track resolution will partly be transformed into the height uncertainty. The beam pattern of the real aperture is used as a weight to improve the Peak to SideLobe Ratio (PSLR) and Integrated SideLobe Ratio (ISLR) of the cross-track sparse array. In order to suppress the high cross-track sidelobes, a weighting preprocessing method is proposed. The 3D images of a point target and a simulation scene are achieved to verify the feasibility of the proposed method. And the imaging result of the real data obtained by the cross-track three-baseline MMW InSAR prototype is presented as a beneficial attempt.

SAR IMAGE RECOGNITION BASED ON MULTI-ASPECT OF SHADOW INFORMATION

The traditional synthetic aperture radar（SAR） image recognition techniques focus on the electro magnetic （EM） scattering centers, ignoring the important role of the shadow information on the SAR image recognition. It is difficult to classify targets by the shadow information independently, because the shadow shape is dependent on the radar aspect angle, the depression angle and the resolution. Moreover, the shadow shapes of different targets are similar. When the multiple SAR images of one target from different aspects are available, the performance of the target recognition can be improved. Aimed at the problem, a multi-aspect SAR image recognition technique based on the shadow information is developed. It extracts shadow profiles from SAR images, and takes chain codes as the feature vectors of targets. Then, feature vectors on multiple aspects of the same target are combined with feature sequences, and the hidden Markov model （HMM） is applied to the feature sequences for the target recognition. The simulation result shows the effectiveness of the method.

Suppression of Speckle in SAR Images Using Wavelet-Based HMM

In order to suppress the speckle appearing in synthesis aperture radar (SAR) images, a novel speckle reduction method based on wavelet domain hidden Markov tree (HMT) was proposed. First, the image was logarithmic transformed to change the statistical property of the speckles. Then an HMT was constructed in the correspondent wavelet domain. Based on this model, the image signal was restored by maximum likelihood estimation and speckle noise was suppressed. Simulating SAR images had shown that the performance of the filter is satisfactory for both speckle smoothing and edges presentation, and for generating visually natural images as well.

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.

Detection of ocean internal waves based on Faster R-CNN in SAR images

Ocean internal waves appear as irregular bright and dark stripes on synthetic aperture radar(SAR)remote sensing images.Ocean internal waves detection in SAR images consequently constituted a difficult and popular research topic.In this paper,ocean internal waves are detected in SAR images by employing the faster regions with convolutional neural network features(Faster R-CNN)framework;for this purpose,888 internal wave samples are utilized to train the convolutional network and identify internal waves.The experimental results demonstrate a 94.78%recognition rate for internal waves,and the average detection speed is 0.22 s/image.In addition,the detection results of internal wave samples under different conditions are analyzed.This paper lays a foundation for detecting ocean internal waves using convolutional neural networks.

Design of synthetic aperture radar low-intercept radio frequency stealth

Not confined to a certain point,such as waveform,this paper systematically studies the low-intercept radio frequency(RF)stealth design of synthetic aperture radar(SAR)from the system level.The study is carried out from two levels.In the first level,the maximum low-intercept range equation of the conventional SAR system is deduced firstly,and then the maximum low-intercept range equation of the multiple-input multiple-output SAR system is deduced.In the second level,the waveform design and imaging method of the low-intercept RF SAR system are given and verified by simulation.Finally,the main technical characteristics of the lowintercept RF stealth SAR system are given to guide the design of low-intercept RF stealth SAR system.

Edge Detection of River in SAR Image Based on Contourlet Modulus Maxima and Improved Mathematical Morphology

To cope with the problems that edge detection operators are liable to make the detected edges too blurry for synthetic aperture radar(SAR)images,an edge detection method for detecting river in SAR images is proposed based on contourlet modulus maxima and improved mathematical morphology.The SAR image is firstly transformed to a contourlet domain.According to the directional information and gradient information of directional subband of contourlet transform,the modulus maximum and the improved mathematical morphology are used to detect high frequency and low frequency sub-image edges,respectively.Subsequently,the edges of river in SAR image are obtained after fusing the high frequency sub-image and the low frequency sub-image.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed edge detection method can obtain more accurate edge location and reduce false edges,compared with the Canny method,the method based on wavelet and Canny,the method based on contourlet modulus maxima,and the method based on improved(ROEWA).The obtained river edges are complete and clear.

Airport automatic detection in large space-borne SAR imagery

A method to detect airports in large space-borne synthetic aperture radar（SAR） imagery is studied.First,the large SAR imagery is segmented according to amplitude characteristics using maximum a posteriori（MAP） estimator based on the heavytailed Rayleigh model.The attention is then paid on the object of interest（OOI） extracted from the large images.The minimumarea enclosing rectangle（MER） of OOI is created via a rotating calipers algorithm.The projection histogram（PH） of MER for OOI is then computed and the scale and rotation invariant feature for OOI are extracted from the statistical characteristics of PH.A support vector machine（SVM） classifier is trained using those feature parameters and the airport is detected by the SVM classifier and Hough transform.The application in space-borne SAR images demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.

SAR image de-noising via grouping-based PCA and guided filter

A novel synthetic aperture radar(SAR)image de-noising method based on the local pixel grouping(LPG)principal component analysis(PCA)and guided filter is proposed.This method contains two steps.In the first step,we process the noisy image by coarse filters,which can suppress the speckle effectively.The original SAR image is transformed into the additive noise model by logarithmic transform with deviation correction.Then,we use the pixel and its nearest neighbors as a vector to select training samples from the local window by LPG based on the block similar matching.The LPG method ensures that only the similar sample patches are used in the local statistical calculation of PCA transform estimation,so that the local features of the image can be well preserved after coefficients shrinkage in the PCA domain.In the second step,we do the guided filtering which can effectively eliminate small artifacts left over from the coarse filtering.Experimental results of simulated and real SAR images show that the proposed method outstrips the state-of-the-art image de-noising methods in the peak signalto-noise ratio(PSNR),the structural similarity(SSIM)index and the equivalent number of looks(ENLs),and is of perceived image quality.

Geometric active contour based approach for segmentation of high-resolution spaceborne SAR images

Segmentation is the key step in auto-interpretation of high-resolution spaceborne synthetic aperture radar（SAR） images. A novel method is proposed based on integrating the geometric active contour（GAC） and the support vector machine（SVM）models. First, the images are segmented by using SVM and textural statistics. A likelihood measurement for every pixel is derived by using the initial segmentation. The Chan-Vese model then is modified by adding two items： the likelihood and the distance between the initial segmentation and the evolving contour. Experimental results using real SAR images demonstrate the good performance of the proposed method compared to several classic GAC models.

ADAPTIVE RIVER SEGMENTATION IN SAR IMAGES

There is difficulty for distinguishing of river and shadow in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. A method of river segmentation in SAR images based on wavelet energy and gradient is proposed in this paper. It mainly includes two algorithms: coarse segmentation and refined segmen- tation. Firstly, The river regions are coarsely segmented by the wavelet energy feature,and then refined segmented accurately by the gradient threshold which is got adaptively. The experimental results show the validity of the method, which provides a good foundation for targets detection above the river.

A NEW UNSUPERVISED CLASSIFICATION ALGORITHM FOR POLARIMETRIC SAR IMAGES BASED ON FUZZY SET THEORY

In this letter, a new method is proposed for unsupervised classification of terrain types and man-made objects using POLarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (POLSAR) data. This technique is a combi-nation of the usage of polarimetric information of SAR images and the unsupervised classification method based on fuzzy set theory. Image quantization and image enhancement are used to preprocess the POLSAR data. Then the polarimetric information and Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering algorithm are used to classify the preprocessed images. The advantages of this algorithm are the automated classification, its high classifica-tion accuracy, fast convergence and high stability. The effectiveness of this algorithm is demonstrated by ex-periments using SIR-C/X-SAR (Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar) data.

NEW SAR IMAGE INTERPRETATION METHOD OF AIRCRAFT BASED ON JOINT TIME-FREQUENCY ANALYSIS

With the continuous improvement of Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR) resolution, interpreting the small targets like aircraft in SAR images becomes possible and turn out to be a hot spot in SAR application research. However, due to the complexity of SAR imaging mechanism, interpreting targets in SAR images is a tough problem. This paper presents a new aircraft interpretation method based on the joint time-frequency analysis and multi-dimensional contrasting of basic structures. Moreover, SAR data acquisition experiment is designed for interpreting the aircraft. Analyzing the experiment data with our method, the result shows that the proposed method largely makes use of the SAR data information. The reasonable results can provide some auxiliary support for the SAR images manual interpretation.

SAR imagery coding based on blocking high frequency energy matching

A new fractal image compression algorithm based on high frequency energy (HFE) partitioning andmatched domain block searching is presented to code synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. In the hybridcoding algorithm, the original SAR image is decomposed to low frequency components and high frequencycomponents by wavelet transform (WT). Then the coder uses HFE of block to partition and searchthe matched domain block for each range block to code the low frequency components. For the high frequencycomponents, a modified embedded zero-tree wavelet coding algorithm is applied. Experiment resultsshow that the proposed coder obtains about 0. 3dB gain when compared to the traditional fractal coderbased on the quadtree partition. Moreover, the subjective visual quality of the reconstructed SAR imageof the proposed coder outperforms that of the traditional fractal coders in the same compression ratio(CR).

SAR image de-noising based on texture strength and weighted nuclear norm minimization

As synthetic aperture radar（SAR） has been widely used nearly in every field, SAR image de-noising became a very important research field. A new SAR image de-noising method based on texture strength and weighted nuclear norm minimization（WNNM） is proposed. To implement blind de-noising, the accurate estimation of noise variance is very important. So far, it is still a challenge to estimate SAR image noise level accurately because of the rich texture. Principal component analysis（PCA） and the low rank patches selected by image texture strength are used to estimate the noise level. With the help of noise level, WNNM can be expected to SAR image de-noising. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms many excellent de-noising algorithms such as Bayes least squares-Gaussian scale mixtures（BLS-GSM） method, non-local means（NLM） filtering in terms of both quantitative measure and visual perception quality.

SAR images classification method based on Dempster-Shafer theory and kernel estimate

To study the scene classification in the Synthetic Aperture Radar （SAR） image, a novel method based on kernel estimate, with the Maxkov context and Dempster-Shafer evidence theory is proposed. Initially, a nonpaxametric Probability Density Function （PDF） estimate method is introduced, to describe the scene of SAR images. And then under the Maxkov context, both the determinate PDF and the kernel estimate method axe adopted respectively, to form a primary classification. Next, the primary classification results are fused using the evidence theory in an unsupervised way to get the scene classification. Finally, a regularization step is used, in which an iterated maximum selecting approach is introduced to control the fragments and modify the errors of the classification. Use of the kernel estimate and evidence theory can describe the complicated scenes with little prior knowledge and eliminate the ambiguities of the primary classification results. Experimental results on real SAR images illustrate a rather impressive performance.