Despeckling SAR-type multiplicative noise

Abstract

Despeckling multiplicative noise is important in processing coherent radar images. Assuming that measurements are corrupted by multiplicative noise and that a priori values are contaminated by either multiplicative or additive noise, we have obtained Bayesian, maximum likelihood and weighted least-squares (LS) estimators, based on gamma and normal distributions. These estimators have been shown to be biased if the noise in measurements is multiplicative. A technique of bias-correction to remove biases from the estimated parameters is proposed. The bias-correction technique requires no distributions about the measurements and the a priori mean, and can be applied to eliminate bias from Bayesian, maximum likelihood and weighted LS estimators in multiplicative noise models. It theoretically provides a solid foundation for, and thus justifies some of current practice in, despeckling multiplicative noise, such as Lee's local statistics and Kuan's adaptive smoothing filter. Some despeckling measures are also proposed and simulated experiment results are reported.