NOISE VARIANCE ESTIMATION OF SAR IMAGE IN LOG DOMAIN

Since variance of noise is important parameter for a noise filter to reduce noise in image and the performance of noise filter is dependent on estimated variance. In this paper, we apply additive noise variance estimation method to estimate variance of speckle noise of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. Generally, speckle noise is in multiplicative model, logarithmic transformation is then used to transform multiplicative model into additive model. Here, speckle noise is generally modeled as Gamma distribution function with different looks. The additive noise variance estimation is processed in log domain. The synthesis image and real image of SAR are implemented to test and confirm results and show that more accurate estimation can be achieved.