Speckle Removal of SAR Imagery Using a Point-Jacobian Iteration MAP Estimation

In this paper, an iterative MAP approach using a Bayesian model based on the lognormal distribution for image intensity and a GRF for image texture is proposed for despeckling the SAR images that are corrupted by multiplicative speckle noise. When the image intensity is logarithmically transformed, the speckle noise is approximately Gaussian additive noise, and it tends to a normal probability much faster than the intensity distribution. MRFs have been used to model spatially correlated and signal-dependent phenomena for SAR speckled images. The MRF is incorporated into digital image analysis by viewing pixel types as slates of molecules in a lattice-like physical system defined on a GRF Because of the MRF-SRF equivalence, the assignment of an energy function to the physical system determines its Gibbs measure, which is used to model molecular interactions. The proposed Point-Jacobian Iterative MAP estimation method was first evaluated using simulation data generated by the Monte Carlo method. The methodology was then applied to data acquired by the ESA's ERS satellite on Nonsan area of Korean Peninsula. In the extensive experiments of this study, The proposed method demonstrated the capability to relax speckle noise and estimate noise-free intensity.