Edge Detection for PolSAR Images Integrating Scattering Characteristics and Optimal Contrast

Abstract

Subject to the statistical distribution assumption and the fixed window shape, the classical edge detectors for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) images generally generate inaccurate results in heterogeneous scenes. In this letter, a PolSAR image edge detector integrating the scattering characteristics and optimal contrast (OC) is proposed. Hierarchical model-based decomposition is first implemented for the scattering mechanism characterization. On this basis, a scattering mechanism-driven adaptive window is then designed, which contains pixels with uniform polarimetric scattering. Finally, to avoid making the assumption, the OC measurement is adopted for the edge strength calculation. Experimental results conducted on different PolSAR data confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method and its superiority over the classical edge detectors, especially in heterogeneous areas.