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.

A Review on Applications of Imaging Synthetic Aperture Radar with a Special Focus on Cryospheric Studies

The cryosphere is the frozen part of the Earth’s system. Snow and ice are the main constituents of the cryosphere and may be found in different states, such as snow, freshwater ice, sea ice, perma-frost, and continental ice masses in the form of glaciers and ice sheets. The present review mainly deals with state-of-the-art applications of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) with a special emphasize on cryospheric information extraction. SAR is the most important active microwave remote sensing (RS) instrument for ice monitoring, which provides high-resolution images of the Earth’s surface. SAR is an ideal sensor in RS technology, which works in all-weather and day and night conditions to provide useful unprecedented information, especially in the cryospheric regions which are almost inaccessible areas on Earth. This paper addresses the technological evolution of SAR and its applications in studying the various components of the cryosphere. The arrival of SAR radically changed the capabilities of information extraction related to ice type, new ice formation, and ice thickness. SAR applications can be divided into two broad classes-polarimetric applications and interferometric applications. Polarimetric SAR has been effectively used for mapping calving fronts, crevasses, surface structures, sea ice, detection of icebergs, etc. The paper also summarizes both the operational and climate change research by using SAR for sea ice parameter detection. Digital elevation model (DEM) generation and glacier velocity mapping are the two most important applications used in cryosphere using SAR interferometry or interferometric SAR (InSAR). Space-borne InSAR techniques for measuring ice flow velocity and topography have developed rapidly over the last decade. InSAR is capable of measuring ice motion that has radically changed the science of glaciers and ice sheets. Measurement of temperate glacier velocities and surface characteristics by using airborne and space-borne interferometric satellite images have been the significant application in glaciology and cryospheric studies. Space-borne InSAR has contributed to major evolution in many research areas of glaciological study by measuring ice-stream flow velocity, improving understanding of ice-shelf processes, yielding velocity for flux-gate based mass-balance assessment, and mapping flow of mountain glaciers. The present review summarizes the salient development of SAR applications in cryosphere and glaciology.

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.

Double Polarization SAR Image Classification based on Object-Oriented Technology

This paper proposed to use double polarization synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image to classify surface feature, based on DEM. It takes fully use of the polarization information and external information. This pa-per utilizes ENVISAT ASAR APP double-polarization data of Poyang lake area in Jiangxi Province. Com-pared with traditional pixel-based classification, this paper fully uses object features (color, shape, hierarchy) and accessorial DEM information. The classification accuracy improves from the original 73.7% to 91.84%. The result shows that object-oriented classification technology is suitable for double polarization SAR’s high precision classification.

Integration of SAR Polarimetric Features and Multi-spectral Data for Object-Based Land Cover Classification

An object-based approach is proposed for land cover classification using optimal polarimetric parameters.The ability to identify targets is effectively enhanced by the integration of SAR and optical images.The innovation of the presented method can be summarized in the following two main points:①estimating polarimetric parameters(H-A-Alpha decomposition)through the optical image as a driver;②a multi-resolution segmentation based on the optical image only is deployed to refine classification results.The proposed method is verified by using Sentinel-1/2 datasets over the Bakersfield area,California.The results are compared against those from pixel-based SVM classification using the ground truth from the National Land Cover Database(NLCD).A detailed accuracy assessment complied with seven classes shows that the proposed method outperforms the conventional approach by around 10%,with an overall accuracy of 92.6%over regions with rich texture.

New algorithm of target classification in polarimetric SAR

The different approaches used for target decomposition （TD） theory in radar polarimetry are reviewed and three main types of theorems are introduced： those based on Mueller matrix, those using an eigenvector analysis of the coherency matrix, and those employing coherent decomposition of the scattering matrix. Support vector machine （SVM）, as a novel approach in pattern recognition, has demonstrated success in many fields. A new algorithm of target classification, by combining target decomposition and the support vector machine, is proposed. To conduct the experiment, the polarimetric synthetic aperture radar （SAR） data are used. Experimental results show that it is feasible and efficient to target classification by applying target decomposition to extract scattering mechanisms, and the effects of kernel function and its parameters on the classification efficiency are significant.

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.

A method for coastal oil tank detection in polarimetric SAR images based on recognition of T-shaped harbor

To automatically detect oil tanks in polarimetric synthetic aperture radar（SAR） images, a coastal oil tank detection method is proposed based on recognition of T-shaped harbor. First of all, the T-shaped harbor is detected to locate the region of interest（ROI） of oil tanks. Then all suspicious targets in the ROI are extracted by the segmentation of strong scattering targets and the classifier of H/α. The template targets are selected from the suspicious targets by the combination of a proposed circular degree parameter and the similarity parameter（SP） of the polarimetric coherency matrix. Finally, oil tanks are detected according to the statistics of the similarity parameter between each suspicious target and template targets in ROI. Polarimetric SAR data acquired by RADARSAT-2 over Berkeley and Singapore areas are used for testing. Experiment results show that most of the targets are correctly detected and the overall detection rate is close to 80%.The false rate is effectively reduced by the proposed algorithm compared with the method without T-shaped harbor recognition.

Intertidal area classification with generalized extreme value distribution and Markov random field in quad-polarimetric synthetic aperture radar imagery

Classification of intertidal area in synthetic aperture radar(SAR) images is an important yet challenging issue when considering the complicatedly and dramatically changing features of tidal fluctuation. The difficulty of intertidal area classification is compounded because a high proportion of this area is frequently flooded by water, making statistical modeling methods with spatial contextual information often ineffective. Because polarimetric entropy and anisotropy play significant roles in characterizing intertidal areas, in this paper we propose a novel unsupervised contextual classification algorithm. The key point of the method is to combine the generalized extreme value(GEV) statistical model of the polarization features and the Markov random field(MRF) for contextual smoothing. A goodness-of-fit test is added to determine the significance of the components of the statistical model. The final classification results are obtained by effectively combining the results of polarimetric entropy and anisotropy. Experimental results of the polarimetric data obtained by the Chinese Gaofen-3 SAR satellite demonstrate the feasibility and superiority of the proposed classification algorithm.

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.

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 inter- ferometric 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.

微波视觉与SAR图像智能解译

高分辨率雷达成像技术和人工智能、大数据技术的快速发展,有力促进了雷达图像智能解译技术的进步。由于雷达传感器本身的特殊性和电磁散射成像物理的复杂性,雷达图像的解译缺乏光学图像的直观性,准确迅速识别分类的需求对雷达图像解译提出了迫切的挑战。在借鉴人脑光视觉感知机理和计算机视觉图像处理相关技术基础上,进一步融合电磁散射物理规律及其雷达成像机理,我们提出发展微波域雷达图像解译的“微波视觉”的新交叉领域研究。该文介绍微波视觉的概念与内涵,提出微波视觉认知模型,阐述其基础理论问题与技术路线,最后介绍了作者团队在相关问题上的初步研究进展。

A statistical distribution texton feature for synthetic aperture radar image classification

We propose a novel statistical distribution texton(s-texton) feature for synthetic aperture radar(SAR) image classification. Motivated by the traditional texton feature, the framework of texture analysis, and the importance of statistical distribution in SAR images, the s-texton feature is developed based on the idea that parameter estimation of the statistical distribution can replace the filtering operation in the traditional texture analysis of SAR images. In the process of extracting the s-texton feature, several strategies are adopted, including pre-processing, spatial gridding, parameter estimation, texton clustering, and histogram statistics. Experimental results on Terra SAR data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed s-texton feature.

基于长短路融合及数据平衡的SAR船舶检测算法

针对SAR图像检测船舶任务中的目标小、近岸样本目标检测困难等问题,文章提出一种名为长短路特征融合网络(Long and Short path Feature Fusion Network,LSFF-Net)的船舶检测网络。该网络通过长短路特征融合模块有效协调了大目标与小目标检测,避免小目标特征信息的丢失。网络中应用结构重参数化结构提高了模块学习能力。为了满足多尺度目标检测,加入特征金字塔网络,融合多尺度特征。为了应对近岸样本目标检测,设计数据重分配算法,提高了对近岸样本目标的检测精度。实验结果表明:在公开数据集检测时,算法的平均精度(Average Precision,AP)达到97.50%,优于主流目标检测算法。该方法为提高SAR图像中小目标和近岸样本目标检测精度提供了新的实现方案。

考虑速度聚束效应的SAR海浪成像仿真方法

针对合成孔径雷达(SAR)海浪成像仿真技术对于速度聚束效应的考虑不充分,仿真数据无法准确反映实际SAR数据的问题,建立一种充分考虑速度聚束效应的SAR海浪成像仿真方法并进行了实验验证。计算了SAR图像强度的概率密度分布的仿真结果与理论结果之间的均方误差(MSE),在风速分别为5、10和15 m/s时,考虑速度聚束效应前、后比对结果的MSE分别为0.1012、0.1576、0.0556与0.0179、0.0314、0.0088。仿真结果表明,所提SAR海浪成像仿真方法有效提高了仿真数据的准确性,对SAR海浪成像的应用具有一定实用价值。

面向目视解译的全极化SAR船只精细化特征表征方法

随着卫星技术的发展,极化合成孔径雷达(PolSAR)数据的分辨率和数据质量得到大幅提升,为人造目标的精细化目视解译提供了良好的数据条件。目前主要采用多分量分解的方法,但是易造成像素错分问题,为此,该文结合Yamaguchi极化分解和极化熵提出了一种非固定阈值划分的方法用于实现全极化SAR图像船只结构精细化特征表征。Yamaguchi极化分解能够识别基本散射机制,其修正后的体散射模型更符合实测数据,可有效对人造目标进行表征。极化熵H在弱去极化状态下可以看成某一指定等效点的目标散射机制,能够有效突出船只主散射特征。因此,该文通过将Yamaguchi极化分解算法的非固定三分量与极化熵的低中高熵内嵌,将其分为非固定阈值的九分类成分,从而降低硬阈值处理在阈值边界处受噪声影响产生的类别随机性。并且将二次散射和单次散射均显著的区域称为混合散射(MSM),以更好匹配实验中船只典型结构的散射类型。在此基础上,利用广义相似性参数进一步缩短类内距离,采用改进后的GSP-Wishart分类器进行迭代聚类,旨在通过提高二次散射和混合散射机制以提高不同类型船只可区分度。最后,该文采用中国上海某港口的高分三号全极化SAR数据进行实验,为了验证每艘船只特征表征正确性,通过船舶自动识别系统(AIS)收集并筛选了该港口船只信息及光学数据,并与极化SAR数据中每艘船只进行匹配。实验结果表明该方法可有效区分散货船、集装箱船和油轮3种类型船只。

基于融合距离的极化SAR图像非局部均值滤波

在极化合成孔径雷达(synthetic aperture radar,SAR)图像降噪领域,常见的非局部均值滤波仅依靠像素间的统计距离进行相似性度量,忽略了像素点的空间信息。本文结合极化SAR数据统计特性和图像空间特征作为像素间的相似性度量,提出了一种利用融合距离来计算相邻窗口权重的方法——基于融合距离的非局部均值滤波器。融合距离的引入使得滤波器能够更全面的评估像素间的相似性,从而得到更合适的像素权重。此外,本方法还引进变异系数对邻域窗口的权重进行评估,通过该参数可以控制滤波的程度。在多幅极化SAR图像上的实验结果表明,所提出的滤波器能够在有效抑制斑点噪声的同时保留较为完整的图像边缘信息和极化散射特性。

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.