Adaptive-neighborhood multitemporal synthetic speckle removal in aperture radar images

We present a new method for multitemporal synthetic aperture radar image filtering using three-dimensional (3D) adaptive neighborhoods. The method takes both spatial and temporal information into account to derive the speckle-free value of a pixel. For each pixel individually, a 3D adaptive neighborhood is determined that contains only pixels belonging to the same distribution as the current pixel. Then statistics computed inside the established neighborhood are used to derive the filter output. It is shown that the method provides good results by drastically reducing speckle over homogeneous areas while retaining edges and thin structures. The performances of the proposed method are compared in terms of subjective and objective measures with those given by several classical speckle-filtering methods. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.