The multilook polarimetric whitening filter (MPWF) for intensity speckle reduction in polarimetric SAR images

Abstract

The polarimetric whitening filter (PWF) proposed by Novak et al. is extended to the multilook case to form a multilook PWF (MPWF) fur intensity speckle reduction in multilook polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The MPWF optimally processes the multilook covariance matrix to generate a minimum-speckle intensity image. The amount of speckle reduction achievable by using the MPWF is quantified. The authors also show that the MPWF is equivalent to a maximum likelihood (ML) filter. Experimental results with the NAS/Jet propulsion laboratory (JPL) airborne L-band, four-look polarimetric SAR data demonstrate the effectiveness of the MPWF.