Sensitivity Analysis of the Scattering-Based SARBM3D Despeckling Algorithm

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery greatly suffers from multiplicative speckle noise, typical of coherent image acquisition sensors, such as SAR systems. Therefore, a proper and accurate despeckling preprocessing step is almost mandatory to aid the interpretation and processing of SAR data by human users and computer algorithms, respectively. Very recently, a scattering-oriented version of the popular SAR Block-Matching 3D (SARBM3D) despeckling filter, named Scattering-Based (SB)-SARBM3D, was proposed. The new filter is based on the a priori knowledge of the local topography of the scene. In this paper, an experimental sensitivity analysis of the above-mentioned despeckling algorithm is carried out, and the main results are shown and discussed. In particular, the role of both electromagnetic and geometrical parameters of the surface and the impact of its scattering behavior are investigated. Furthermore, a comprehensive sensitivity analysis of the SB-SARBM3D filter against the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) resolution and the SAR image-DEM coregistration step is also provided. The sensitivity analysis shows a significant robustness of the algorithm against most of the surface parameters, while the DEM resolution plays a key role in the despeckling process. Furthermore, the SB-SARBM3D algorithm outperforms the original SARBM3D in the presence of the most realistic scattering behaviors of the surface. An actual scenario is also presented to assess the DEM role in real-life conditions.