A Review on InSAR Phase Denoising

Nowadays, interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has been a powerful tool in remote sensing by enhancing the information acquisition. During the InSAR processing, phase denoising of interferogram is a mandatory step for topography mapping and deformation monitoring. Over the last three decades, a large number of effective algorithms have been developed to do efforts on this topic. In this paper, we give a comprehensive overview of InSAR phase denoising methods, classifying the established and emerging algorithms into four main categories. The first two parts refer to the categories of traditional local filters and transformed-domain filters, respectively. The third part focuses on the category of nonlocal (NL) filters, considering their outstanding performances. Latter, some advanced methods based on new concept of signal processing are also introduced to show their potentials in this field. Moreover, several popular phase denoising methods are illustrated and compared by performing the numerical experiments using both simulated and measured data. The purpose of this paper is intended to provide necessary guideline and inspiration to related researchers by promoting the architecture development of InSAR signal processing.

[1]  Chandrakanta Ojha,et al.  Interferometric SAR Phase Denoising Using Proximity-Based K-SVD Technique , 2019, Sensors.

[2]  Gilda Schirinzi,et al.  Multichannel interferometric SAR phase unwrapping using extended Kalman Smoother , 2013 .

[3]  Qin Zhang,et al.  An iterative Goldstein SAR interferogram filter , 2012 .

[4]  Carlos López-Martínez,et al.  Modeling and reduction of SAR interferometric phase noise in the wavelet domain , 2002, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[5]  C. Werner,et al.  Radar interferogram filtering for geophysical applications , 1998 .

[6]  Xue Ji-qun Gauss weighted periodic pivoting filtering algorithm for InSAR interferogram , 2011 .

[7]  Gianfranco Fornaro,et al.  Minimum mean square error space-varying filtering of interferometric SAR data , 2002, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[8]  Jérôme Darbon,et al.  SAR Image Regularization With Fast Approximate Discrete Minimization , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[9]  Zheng Bao,et al.  A New Strategy to Estimate Local Fringe Frequencies for InSAR Phase Noise Reduction , 2010, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[10]  Scott Hensley An Analytic Expression for the Phase Noise of the Goldstein–Werner Filter , 2019, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[11]  Tang Zhi,et al.  Analysis on noise reduction method for interferometric SAR image , 2004, IGARSS 2004. 2004 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[12]  Huadong Guo,et al.  Improved Goldstein SAR Interferogram Filter Based on Adaptive-Neighborhood Technique , 2015, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[13]  Qifeng Yu,et al.  An Adaptive Contoured Window Filter for Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar , 2007, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[14]  Yang Lan,et al.  Phase Unwrapping in InSAR : A Review , 2019, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine.

[15]  Cheng Huang,et al.  SAR interferogram filtering with 2D Vondrak filter , 2005, Proceedings. 2005 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2005. IGARSS '05..

[16]  Jong-Sen Lee,et al.  Intensity and phase statistics of multilook polarimetric and interferometric SAR imagery , 1994, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[17]  Jérôme Darbon,et al.  Joint Regularization of Phase and Amplitude of InSAR Data: Application to 3-D Reconstruction , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[18]  Riadh Abdelfattah,et al.  An Enhanced Weighted Median Filter for Noise Reduction in SAR Interferograms , 2013, ACIVS.

[19]  Joseph M. Francos,et al.  An estimation algorithm for 2-D polynomial phase signals , 1996, IEEE Trans. Image Process..

[20]  Yang Lan,et al.  Optimal Baseline Design for Multibaseline InSAR Phase Unwrapping , 2019, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[21]  D. Massonnet,et al.  Deflation of Mount Etna monitored by spaceborne radar interferometry , 1995, Nature.

[22]  Qifeng Yu,et al.  Directionally Adaptive Filter for Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometric Phase Images , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[23]  Zheng Bao,et al.  Image autocoregistration and InSAR interferogram estimation using joint subspace projection , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[24]  John Bowman Thomas,et al.  An introduction to statistical communication theory , 1969 .

[25]  Riadh Abdelfattah,et al.  A modification to the ASM filter for improving SAR interferograms , 2013, 21st European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO 2013).

[26]  Davide Cozzolino,et al.  The Offset-Compensated Nonlocal Filtering of Interferometric Phase , 2018, Remote. Sens..

[27]  Tomás Martínez-Marín,et al.  A Particle Filter Approach for InSAR Phase Filtering and Unwrapping , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[28]  Paris W. Vachon,et al.  Coherence estimation for SAR imagery , 1999, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[29]  Carlos López-Martínez,et al.  Nonlocal Filtering Applied to 3-D Reconstruction of Tomographic SAR Data , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[30]  Li Guo,et al.  A novel two-step noise reduction approach for interferometric phase images , 2019 .

[31]  Giampaolo Ferraioli,et al.  Extended Kalman Filter for Multichannel InSAR Height Reconstruction , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[32]  Mengdao Xing,et al.  Sparse Regularization of Interferometric Phase and Amplitude for InSAR Image Formation Based on Bayesian Representation , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[33]  Yong Wang,et al.  A Sparsity-Based InSAR Phase Denoising Algorithm Using Nonlocal Wavelet Shrinkage , 2016, Remote. Sens..

[34]  Zheng Bao,et al.  Noise Filtering of High-Resolution Interferograms Over Vegetation and Urban Areas With a Refined Nonlocal Filter , 2015, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[35]  Jaakko Astola,et al.  Phase Local Approximation (PhaseLa) Technique for Phase Unwrap From Noisy Data , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[36]  Wang Feng An Algorithm of Weighted Periodic Pivoting Median Filtering for InSAR Phase Fringe , 2005 .

[37]  Emre Ertin,et al.  Sparsity and Compressed Sensing in Radar Imaging , 2010, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[38]  Bin Liu,et al.  Noise Reduction in Interferograms Using the Wavelet Packet Transform and Wiener Filtering , 2008, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[39]  Xiao Xiang Zhu,et al.  Potential and limits of non-local means InSAR filtering for TanDEM-X high-resolution DEM generation , 2018 .

[40]  Wajih Ben Abdallah,et al.  Two-dimensional wavelet algorithm for interferometric synthetic aperture radar phase filtering enhancement , 2015 .

[41]  E Trouvé,et al.  Fringe detection in noisy complex interferograms. , 1996, Applied optics.

[42]  Henri Maître,et al.  Improving phase unwrapping techniques by the use of local frequency estimates , 1998, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[43]  Jong-Sen Lee,et al.  Refined Filtering of Interferometric Phase From InSAR Data , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[44]  L. C. Graham,et al.  Synthetic interferometer radar for topographic mapping , 1974 .

[45]  Mahmod Reza Sahebi,et al.  Windowed Fourier Transform for Noise Reduction of SAR Interferograms , 2009, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[46]  Akira Hirose,et al.  Adaptive noise reduction of InSAR images based on a complex-valued MRF model and its application t o phase unwrapping problem , 2002, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[47]  Yang Lan,et al.  2-D Phase Unwrapping Using Minimum Infinity-Norm , 2018, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[48]  M. Seymour,et al.  Maximum likelihood estimation for SAR interferometry , 1994, Proceedings of IGARSS '94 - 1994 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[49]  Yiming Pi,et al.  Phase noise filtering and phase unwrapping method based on unscented Kalman filter , 2011 .

[50]  Xiao Xiang Zhu,et al.  A Nonlocal InSAR Filter for High-Resolution DEM Generation From TanDEM-X Interferograms , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[51]  Anastasios N. Venetsanopoulos,et al.  Nonlinear filtering for phase image denoising , 2002 .

[52]  Uwe Stilla,et al.  Adaptive Multilooking of Airborne Single-Pass Multi-Baseline InSAR Stacks , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[53]  Xiao Xiang Zhu,et al.  InSAR-BM3D: A Nonlocal Filter for SAR Interferometric Phase Restoration , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[54]  Fuk K. Li,et al.  Synthetic aperture radar interferometry , 2000, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[55]  Ramon F. Hanssen,et al.  Fast Statistically Homogeneous Pixel Selection for Covariance Matrix Estimation for Multitemporal InSAR , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[56]  Jili Wang,et al.  Adaptive Multilooking Based on Complex Patch for Multitemporal Interferometry , 2018, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing.

[57]  Juan M. Lopez-Sanchez,et al.  An Improved Phase Filter for Differential SAR Interferometry Based on an Iterative Method , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[58]  Luisa Verdoliva,et al.  Nonlocal Adaptive Multilooking in SAR Multipass Differential Interferometry , 2015, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing.

[59]  Riadh Abdelfattah,et al.  A Joint Markov Random Field Approach for SAR Interferogram Filtering and Unwrapping , 2016, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing.

[60]  Bo Du,et al.  Deep Learning for Remote Sensing Data: A Technical Tutorial on the State of the Art , 2016, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine.

[61]  Kush R. Varshney,et al.  Sparsity-Driven Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging , 2014 .

[62]  Weidong Yu,et al.  Integrated Denoising and Unwrapping of InSAR Phase Based on Markov Random Fields , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[63]  Xiaoli Ding,et al.  The Improvement for Baran Phase Filter Derived From Unbiased InSAR Coherence , 2014, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing.

[64]  Giorgio Franceschetti,et al.  X-SAR interferometry: first results , 1995, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[65]  Florence Tupin,et al.  NL-InSAR: Nonlocal Interferogram Estimation , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[66]  Haifeng Huang,et al.  An Efficient and Adaptive Approach for Noise Filtering of SAR Interferometric Phase Images , 2011, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[67]  D. Middleton An Introduction to Statistical Communication Theory , 1960 .

[68]  Florence Tupin,et al.  NL-SAR: A Unified Nonlocal Framework for Resolution-Preserving (Pol)(In)SAR Denoising , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[69]  Xiao Xiang Zhu,et al.  Improving TanDEM-X DEMs by Non-local InSAR Filtering , 2014 .

[70]  Mike P. Stewart,et al.  A modification to the Goldstein radar interferogram filter , 2003, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[71]  Jaakko Astola,et al.  Absolute phase estimation: adaptive local denoising and global unwrapping. , 2008, Applied optics.

[72]  Liu Ming,et al.  A piece-wise polynomial fitting method to filter the interferogram phase noise [InSAR] , 2002, IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[73]  Jocelyn Chanussot,et al.  High-Resolution SAR Interferometry: Estimation of Local Frequencies in the Context of Alpine Glaciers , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[74]  Shubi Zhang,et al.  Frequency Domain Filtering SAR Interferometric Phase Noise Using the Amended Matrix Pencil Model , 2019 .

[75]  Antonio Pepe,et al.  Improved EMCF-SBAS Processing Chain Based on Advanced Techniques for the Noise-Filtering and Selection of Small Baseline Multi-Look DInSAR Interferograms , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[76]  Fangfang Li,et al.  Nonlocal SAR Interferometric Phase Filtering Through Higher Order Singular Value Decomposition , 2015, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[77]  José M. Bioucas-Dias,et al.  Interferometric Phase Image Estimation via Sparse Coding in the Complex Domain , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[78]  Gang Liu,et al.  Interferometric Phase Denoising by Pyramid Nonlocal Means Filter , 2013, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[79]  Umberto Spagnolini,et al.  2-D phase unwrapping and instantaneous frequency estimation , 1995, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[80]  N. R. Goodman Statistical analysis based on a certain multivariate complex Gaussian distribution , 1963 .

[81]  K. Feigl,et al.  The displacement field of the Landers earthquake mapped by radar interferometry , 1993, Nature.

[82]  Zhiwei Li,et al.  Improved filtering parameter determination for the goldstein radar interferogram filter , 2008 .

[83]  L.V. Dutra,et al.  Interferogram phase noise reduction using morphological and modified median filters , 1995, 1995 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, IGARSS '95. Quantitative Remote Sensing for Science and Applications.

[84]  Nan Wu,et al.  A locally adaptive filter of interferometric phase images , 2006, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[85]  Vito Pascazio,et al.  Maximum a posteriori estimation of height profiles in InSAR imaging , 2004, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[86]  Qi Zhang,et al.  Local Fringe Frequency Estimation Based on Multifrequency InSAR for Phase-Noise Reduction in Highly Sloped Terrain , 2017, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[87]  Xiao Xiang Zhu,et al.  Deep Learning in Remote Sensing: A Comprehensive Review and List of Resources , 2017, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine.

[88]  C. Werner,et al.  Satellite radar interferometry: Two-dimensional phase unwrapping , 1988 .

[89]  Giovanni Poggi,et al.  A Bayesian filtering technique for SAR interferometric phase fields , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[90]  Otmar Loffeld,et al.  Phase unwrapping for SAR interferometry. A data fusion approach by Kalman filtering , 1999, IEEE 1999 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. IGARSS'99 (Cat. No.99CH36293).

[91]  Ridha Touzi,et al.  Statistics of the Stokes parameters and of the complex coherence parameters in one-look and multilook speckle fields , 1996, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[92]  Luciano Vieira Dutra,et al.  Generation of digital elevation models by using SIR-C/X-SAR multifrequency two-pass interferometry: the Etna case study , 1996, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[93]  Xin Tian,et al.  A hybrid method for optimization of the adaptive Goldstein filter , 2014 .

[94]  Xiaoxiang Zhu,et al.  GPU-based nonlocal filtering for large scale SAR processing , 2016, 2016 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS).

[95]  E. Rodríguez,et al.  Theory and design of interferometric synthetic aperture radars , 1992 .

[96]  Konstantinos Papathanassiou,et al.  A new technique for noise filtering of SAR interferometric phase images , 1998, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[97]  Richard Bamler,et al.  Optimized parallelization of non-local means filter for image noise reduction of InSAR image , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation.

[98]  Jean-Michel Morel,et al.  A non-local algorithm for image denoising , 2005, 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR'05).

[99]  Jean-Michel Morel,et al.  A Review of Image Denoising Algorithms, with a New One , 2005, Multiscale Model. Simul..

[100]  Irene Cheng,et al.  CNN-Based InSAR Denoising and Coherence Metric , 2018, 2018 IEEE SENSORS.

[101]  Howard A. Zebker,et al.  Decorrelation in interferometric radar echoes , 1992, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[102]  Bryan Mercer,et al.  Interferometric SAR Phase Filtering in the Wavelet Domain Using Simultaneous Detection and Estimation , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[103]  Ming Li,et al.  Improved InSAR Phase Noise Filter in Frequency Domain , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[104]  Oleksandr O. Bezvesilniy,et al.  EFFECTS OF LOCAL PHASE ERRORS IN MULTI-LOOK SAR IMAGES , 2013 .

[105]  J. Goodman Speckle Phenomena in Optics: Theory and Applications , 2020 .

[106]  Yuhao Wang,et al.  Efficient InSAR Phase Noise Reduction via Compressive Sensing in the Complex Domain , 2018, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing.

[107]  Ning Cao,et al.  A Novel Method for Deformation Estimation Based on Multibaseline InSAR Phase Unwrapping , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[108]  Gang Liu,et al.  A Modification to the Complex-Valued MRF Modeling Filter of Interferometric SAR Phase , 2015, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[109]  Jong-Sen Lee,et al.  Digital image smoothing and the sigma filter , 1983, Comput. Vis. Graph. Image Process..

[110]  Gabriel Vasile,et al.  Intensity-driven adaptive-neighborhood technique for polarimetric and interferometric SAR parameters estimation , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[111]  Paolo Gamba,et al.  Application of Multitemporal InSAR Covariance and Information Fusion to Robust Road Extraction , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[112]  Dennis C. Ghiglia,et al.  Two-Dimensional Phase Unwrapping: Theory, Algorithms, and Software , 1998 .

[113]  Wang Yaonan InSAR Interferogram Filtering Based on Wavelet Transform , 2006 .

[114]  Qian Kemao,et al.  Two-dimensional windowed Fourier transform for fringe pattern analysis: Principles, applications and implementations , 2007 .

[115]  Dan Meng,et al.  A Novel Technique for Noise Reduction in InSAR Images , 2007, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[116]  Xiao Xiang Zhu,et al.  Robust Object-Based Multipass InSAR Deformation Reconstruction , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.