Change detection in synthetic aperture radar images based on non-local means with ratio similarity measurement

Abstract

Image change detection is of widespread interest due to a large number of applications in diverse disciplines. In this study, a novel change detection approach for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images based on a non-local means algorithm is proposed. A non-local means technique is introduced to generate a difference image by using complete information from a pair of observed images. To take the characteristics of SAR images into account, a new ratio-based relativity measurement between two speckled SAR image patches based on a ratio distance is proposed. Theoretical analysis indicates that the ratio distance is valid for SAR images. The probability density function of the ratio distance is deduced to map the distance into a relativity value. Furthermore, the ratio distance and the probability density function are both parameter-free. The new non-local means technique is successfully applied to extend the classical mean-ratio detector for SAR image detection. Experimental results on real SAR images show that the proposed approach is robust to speckle noise and effective for the detection of change information between multitemporal SAR images.