PolSAR image speckle reduction based on polarimetric decomposition and classification

On account of the inherent speckle in PolSAR (Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar) images and target scattering properties maintaining after speckle suppressing, an effective algorithm for speckle reduction based on scattering model is developed. First, fast alternative to H/α is used in PolSAR image decomposition, and total back-scattering power is combined for initial p ixel classification. Then, minimum distance measure and h ierarchical cluster method are used for further classification. Finally, pixels are filtered according to their classes. Experimental results with AIRSAR data show that, the new algorithm is more effective than Scattering-Model-Based speckle filter developed by Lee not only in speckle reduction but also in polarimetric properties preservation.