Parameter selection in sparsity-driven SAR imaging

We consider a recently developed sparsity-driven synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging approach which can produce superresolution, feature-enhanced images. However, this regularization-based approach requires the selection of a hyper-parameter in order to generate such high-quality images. In this paper we present a number of techniques for automatically selecting the hyper-parameter involved in this problem. In particular, we propose and develop numerical procedures for the use of Stein’s unbiased risk estimation, generalized cross-validation, and L-curve techniques for automatic parameter choice. We demonstrate and compare the effectiveness of these procedures through experiments based on both simple synthetic scenes, as well as electromagnetically simulated realistic data. Our results suggest that sparsity-driven SAR imaging coupled with the proposed automatic parameter choice procedures offers significant improvements over conventional SAR imaging

Image Restoration for Remote Sensing: Overview and Toolbox

Remote sensing provides valuable information about objects or areas from a distance in either active (e.g., RADAR and LiDAR) or passive (e.g., multispectral and hyperspectral) modes. The quality of data acquired by remotely sensed imaging sensors (both active and passive) is often degraded by a variety of noise types and artifacts. Image restoration, which is a vibrant field of research in the remote sensing community, is the task of recovering the true unknown image from the degraded observed image. Each imaging sensor induces unique noise types and artifacts into the observed image. This fact has led to the expansion of restoration techniques in different paths according to each sensor type. This review paper brings together the advances of image restoration techniques with particular focuses on synthetic aperture radar and hyperspectral images as the most active sub-fields of image restoration in the remote sensing community. We, therefore, provide a comprehensive, discipline-specific starting point for researchers at different levels (i.e., students, researchers, and senior researchers) willing to investigate the vibrant topic of data restoration by supplying sufficient detail and references. Additionally, this review paper accompanies a toolbox to provide a platform to encourage interested students and researchers in the field to further explore the restoration techniques and fast-forward the community. The toolboxes are provided in https://github.com/ImageRestorationToolbox.Comment: This paper is under review in GRS

Non-Local Compressive Sensing Based SAR Tomography

Tomographic SAR (TomoSAR) inversion of urban areas is an inherently sparse reconstruction problem and, hence, can be solved using compressive sensing (CS) algorithms. This paper proposes solutions for two notorious problems in this field: 1) TomoSAR requires a high number of data sets, which makes the technique expensive. However, it can be shown that the number of acquisitions and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can be traded off against each other, because it is asymptotically only the product of the number of acquisitions and SNR that determines the reconstruction quality. We propose to increase SNR by integrating non-local estimation into the inversion and show that a reasonable reconstruction of buildings from only seven interferograms is feasible. 2) CS-based inversion is computationally expensive and therefore barely suitable for large-scale applications. We introduce a new fast and accurate algorithm for solving the non-local L1-L2-minimization problem, central to CS-based reconstruction algorithms. The applicability of the algorithm is demonstrated using simulated data and TerraSAR-X high-resolution spotlight images over an area in Munich, Germany.Comment: 10 page

A Comprehensive Survey of Deep Learning in Remote Sensing: Theories, Tools and Challenges for the Community

In recent years, deep learning (DL), a re-branding of neural networks (NNs), has risen to the top in numerous areas, namely computer vision (CV), speech recognition, natural language processing, etc. Whereas remote sensing (RS) possesses a number of unique challenges, primarily related to sensors and applications, inevitably RS draws from many of the same theories as CV; e.g., statistics, fusion, and machine learning, to name a few. This means that the RS community should be aware of, if not at the leading edge of, of advancements like DL. Herein, we provide the most comprehensive survey of state-of-the-art RS DL research. We also review recent new developments in the DL field that can be used in DL for RS. Namely, we focus on theories, tools and challenges for the RS community. Specifically, we focus on unsolved challenges and opportunities as it relates to (i) inadequate data sets, (ii) human-understandable solutions for modelling physical phenomena, (iii) Big Data, (iv) non-traditional heterogeneous data sources, (v) DL architectures and learning algorithms for spectral, spatial and temporal data, (vi) transfer learning, (vii) an improved theoretical understanding of DL systems, (viii) high barriers to entry, and (ix) training and optimizing the DL.Comment: 64 pages, 411 references. To appear in Journal of Applied Remote Sensin

Second Order Differences of Cyclic Data and Applications in Variational Denoising

In many image and signal processing applications, as interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SAR), electroencephalogram (EEG) data analysis or color image restoration in HSV or LCh spaces the data has its range on the one-dimensional sphere $\mathbb S^1$. Although the minimization of total variation (TV) regularized functionals is among the most popular methods for edge-preserving image restoration such methods were only very recently applied to cyclic structures. However, as for Euclidean data, TV regularized variational methods suffer from the so called staircasing effect. This effect can be avoided by involving higher order derivatives into the functional. This is the first paper which uses higher order differences of cyclic data in regularization terms of energy functionals for image restoration. We introduce absolute higher order differences for $\mathbb S^1$-valued data in a sound way which is independent of the chosen representation system on the circle. Our absolute cyclic first order difference is just the geodesic distance between points. Similar to the geodesic distances the absolute cyclic second order differences have only values in [0,{\pi}]. We update the cyclic variational TV approach by our new cyclic second order differences. To minimize the corresponding functional we apply a cyclic proximal point method which was recently successfully proposed for Hadamard manifolds. Choosing appropriate cycles this algorithm can be implemented in an efficient way. The main steps require the evaluation of proximal mappings of our cyclic differences for which we provide analytical expressions. Under certain conditions we prove the convergence of our algorithm. Various numerical examples with artificial as well as real-world data demonstrate the advantageous performance of our algorithm.Comment: 32 pages, 16 figures, shortened version of submitted manuscrip

A Tutorial on Speckle Reduction in Synthetic Aperture Radar Images

Speckle is a granular disturbance, usually modeled as a multiplicative noise, that affects synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, as well as all coherent images. Over the last three decades, several methods have been proposed for the reduction of speckle, or despeckling, in SAR images. Goal of this paper is making a comprehensive review of despeckling methods since their birth, over thirty years ago, highlighting trends and changing approaches over years. The concept of fully developed speckle is explained. Drawbacks of homomorphic filtering are pointed out. Assets of multiresolution despeckling, as opposite to spatial-domain despeckling, are highlighted. Also advantages of undecimated, or stationary, wavelet transforms over decimated ones are discussed. Bayesian estimators and probability density function (pdf) models in both spatial and multiresolution domains are reviewed. Scale-space varying pdf models, as opposite to scale varying models, are promoted. Promising methods following non-Bayesian approaches, like nonlocal (NL) filtering and total variation (TV) regularization, are reviewed and compared to spatial- and wavelet-domain Bayesian filters. Both established and new trends for assessment of despeckling are presented. A few experiments on simulated data and real COSMO-SkyMed SAR images highlight, on one side the costperformance tradeoff of the different methods, on the other side the effectiveness of solutions purposely designed for SAR heterogeneity and not fully developed speckle. Eventually, upcoming methods based on new concepts of signal processing, like compressive sensing, are foreseen as a new generation of despeckling, after spatial-domain and multiresolution-domain method