Maximum likelihood estimation of spatially correlated signal-dependent noise in hyperspectral images

Abstract. A new algorithm is described for estimating the noise model parameters in hyperspectral data when neither noise components variance nor noise spatial/spectral correlation priors are available. A maximum likelihood (ML) technique is introduced for checking the noise spatial correlation hypothesis and estimating the spatial correlation function width alongside with estimating signal-independent and signal-dependent noise components variance. The hyperspectral image is assumed to match a limited set of assumptions. A three-dimensional (3-D) fractional Brownian motion (fBm) model is introduced for describing locally the texture of the 3-D image noisy textural fragment. Nonstationarity of the useful image signal is taken into account by performing the estimation locally on a 3-D block-by-block basis. The accuracy of the proposed algorithm is first illustrated for synthetic images obtained from either pure fBm or almost noise-free AVIRIS hyperspectral images artificially degraded with spatially correlated noise. The results obtained for synthetic images demonstrate appropriate accuracy and robustness of the proposed method. Then results obtained for real life AVIRIS hyperspectral data sets confirm the noise spatial uncorrelation hypothesis for images acquired by the AVIRIS sensor. Conclusions and open problems are outlined.