Speckle reduction in low-contrast areas by dedicated SAR processing
conference paper
The standard ERS SAR PRI product has 25 meter resolution and 3 looks. For some applications, the noise level of this product is too high; this is notably the case for the low contrasts associated with sea bottom topography. By processing RAW data using special weighting functions, an image can be produced with the same spatial resolution but a lower speckle noise level. By using combinations of overlapping weighting functions of various form, the synthetic beam shape and the speckle level can be adjusted to the situation at hand. Both theoretical results and examples with ERS data are shown. The resulting images are used for the extraction of bathymetry, where they are expected to lead to more accurate results. On the basis of the same principle, RAW data may be processed to reduce image artifacts due to strong scatterer side lobes; results can be applied in the determination of wind fields close to the coast.
TNO Identifier
234203
Publisher
ESA
Source title
Third ERS Symposium on Space at the service of our Environment, 14-21 March, 1997, Florence, Italy
Editor(s)
Guyenne, T.D.
Danesy, D.
Danesy, D.
Place of publication
Noorwijk
Pages
1075-1078
Files
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