The Dependence of Sea SAR Image Distribution Parameters on Surface Wave Characteristics

Modeling the statistical distribution of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is essential for sea target detection, which is an important aspect of marine SAR applications. The main goal of this study is to determine the effects of sea states and surface wave texture characteristics on the statistical distributions of sea SAR images. A statistical analysis of the Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) wave mode images (imagettes), covering a variety of sea states and wave conditions, was carried out to investigate the suitability of the statistical distributions often used in the literature for sea states parameters. The results revealed the variation in the distribution parameters in terms of their azimuthal cutoff wavelength (ACW) and the peak-to-background ratio (PBR) of the SAR image intensity spectra. The shape parameters of Gamma and Weibull distribution are sensitive and monotonously decreasing with respect to PBR, while the scale parameter is sensitive to ACW. The K distribution was shown to perform well, with both high and stable accuracy. The results of this paper provide a parameterized scheme for sea state classifications and can potentially be used for choosing the most suitable distribution model according to sea state when performing sea target detection.

[1]  David Lyzenga,et al.  Numerical Simulation of Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Spectra for Ocean Waves , 1986, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[2]  Donald B. Percival,et al.  Maximum likelihood estimation of K distribution parameters for SAR data , 1993, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[3]  Liming Jiang,et al.  Using SAR Images to Detect Ships From Sea Clutter , 2008, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[4]  Xiao‐Ming Li,et al.  A new insight from space into swell propagation and crossing in the global oceans , 2016 .

[5]  K. Hasselmann,et al.  Spectral signal to clutter and thermal noise properties of ocean wave imaging synthetic aperture radars , 1982 .

[6]  L. Ren,et al.  Significant wave height estimation using azimuth cutoff of C-band RADARSAT-2 single-polarization SAR images , 2015, Acta Oceanologica Sinica.

[7]  Amrane Houacine,et al.  Statistical characterisation and modelling of SAR images , 2002, Signal Process..

[8]  David T. Walker,et al.  Radar backscatter from stationary breaking waves , 1999 .

[9]  B. Chapron,et al.  A semiempirical model of the normalized radar cross‐section of the sea surface 1. Background model , 2003 .

[10]  N. R. Stapleton,et al.  Radar backscatter statistics from the sea surface: Implications of SIR‐C/X‐SAR observations from the NE Atlantic , 1998 .

[11]  Bingfang Wu,et al.  A scheme for ship detection in inhomogeneous regions based on segmentation of SAR images , 2008 .

[12]  J. Ewing,et al.  Directional Wave Spectra Observed during JONSWAP 1973 , 1980 .

[13]  J. Stopa,et al.  Estimating wave orbital velocity through the azimuth cutoff from space‐borne satellites , 2015 .

[14]  Yoshio Yamaguchi,et al.  On Semiparametric Clutter Estimation for Ship Detection in Synthetic Aperture Radar Images , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[15]  R. Garello,et al.  Statistical modelling of ocean SAR images , 1997 .

[16]  Bertrand Chapron,et al.  Low-Frequency Sea Surface Radar Doppler Echo , 2018, Remote. Sens..

[17]  K. Ward.  Compound representation of high resolution sea clutter , 1980 .

[18]  Corina da Costa Freitas,et al.  A model for extremely heterogeneous clutter , 1997, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[19]  S. Hasselmann,et al.  Statistical analysis and intercomparison of WAM model data with global ERS‐1 SAR wave mode spectral retrievals over 3 years , 1998 .

[20]  Bertrand Chapron,et al.  Limitation of SAR Quasi-Linear Inversion Data on Swell Climate: An Example of Global Crossing Swells , 2017, Remote. Sens..

[21]  S. Lehner,et al.  An empirical approach for the retrieval of integral ocean wave parameters from synthetic aperture radar data , 2007 .

[22]  Xiao-Feng Li,et al.  Ocean Wave Parameters Retrieval from TerraSAR-X Images Validated against Buoy Measurements and Model Results , 2015, Remote. Sens..

[23]  Maurizio Migliaccio,et al.  A Multipolarization Analysis of Coastline Extraction Using X-Band COSMO-SkyMed SAR Data , 2014, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing.

[24]  S. Quegan,et al.  Understanding Synthetic Aperture Radar Images , 1998 .

[25]  P. Vachon,et al.  Analysis of ERS-1/2 synthetic aperture radar wave mode imagettes , 1998 .

[26]  B. Chapron,et al.  Monitoring and analysis of ocean swell fields from space: New methods for routine observations , 2009 .

[27]  Weizeng Shao,et al.  Ocean Wave Parameters Retrieval from Sentinel-1 SAR Imagery , 2016, Remote. Sens..

[28]  Kazuo Ouchi.  Statistics of speckle in synthetic aperture radar imagery from targets in random motion , 1981 .

[29]  R. Chellappa,et al.  Lognormal random field models and their applications to radar image synthesis , 1987, ICASSP '86. IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing.

[30]  Helko Breit,et al.  Wind and wave measurements using complex ERS-2 SAR wave mode data , 2000, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[31]  Javier Gismero-Menoyo,et al.  Statistical Analysis of a High-Resolution Sea-Clutter Database , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[32]  W. Alpers,et al.  On the Relative Importance of Motion-Related Contributions to the SAR Imaging Mechanism of Ocean Surface Waves , 1986, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[33]  E. Jakeman,et al.  Generalized K distribution: a statistical model for weak scattering , 1987 .

[34]  Johannes Schulz-Stellenfleth,et al.  Analysis of SAR Wave Mode Imagette Taken Under Extreme Wind and Wave Conditions , 2006 .

[35]  Weizeng Shao,et al.  Analysis of the Global Swell and Wind Sea Energy Distribution Using WAVEWATCH III , 2016 .

[36]  J. Johannessen,et al.  Quad‐polarization SAR features of ocean currents , 2014 .

[37]  Camilla Brekke,et al.  Statistical models for constant false alarm rate ship detection with the sublook correlation magnitude , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[38]  Bryan Mercer,et al.  SAR probability density function estimation using a generalized form of K-distribution , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[39]  Heng-Chao Li,et al.  On the Empirical-Statistical Modeling of SAR Images With Generalized Gamma Distribution , 2011, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing.

[40]  Xiaoming Li,et al.  Ocean Wave Integral Parameter Measurements Using Envisat ASAR Wave Mode Data , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[41]  Gui Gao,et al.  Statistical Modeling of SAR Images: A Survey , 2010, Sensors.

[42]  David de la Mata-Moya,et al.  Statistical Analysis of SAR Sea Clutter for Classification Purposes , 2014, Remote. Sens..

[43]  Carlos López-Martínez,et al.  Statistical Modeling of Polarimetric SAR Data: A Survey and Challenges , 2017, Remote. Sens..

[44]  Josiane Zerubia,et al.  SAR image filtering based on the heavy-tailed Rayleigh model , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[45]  Andrew T. Jessup,et al.  Acoustic and microwave signatures of breaking waves , 1988, Nature.

[46]  Huanxin Zou,et al.  A Bilateral CFAR Algorithm for Ship Detection in SAR Images , 2015, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters.

[47]  Lena Chang,et al.  A region-based GLRT detection of oil spills in SAR images , 2008, Pattern Recognit. Lett..

[48]  Maurizio Migliaccio,et al.  Dual-Polarimetric C- and X-Band SAR Data for Coastline Extraction , 2016, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing.

[49]  M. Nakagami.  The m-Distribution—A General Formula of Intensity Distribution of Rapid Fading , 1960 .

[50]  禹卫东,et al.  A New CFAR Ship Detection Algorithm Based on 2-D Joint Log-Normal Distribution in SAR Images , 2010 .

[51]  R. Raney,et al.  Theory of synthetic aperture radar ocean imaging: A MARSEN view , 1985 .

[52]  Josiane Zerubia,et al.  Modeling SAR images with a generalization of the Rayleigh distribution , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

[53]  R. Gill,et al.  Operational Detection of Sea Ice Edges and Icebergs Using SAR , 2001 .