Interactive Media Systems, TU Wien

SAR Speckle Simulation

By Regine Bolter, Margrit Gelautz, and Franz Leberl

Abstract

After a short introduction to the principles of SAR speckle generation and its statistical properties, we give a review of different speckle simulation methods described in literature. Then, the implementation of some selected algorithms is described, and their performance is tested on simulated ERS-1-images. Special attention is paid to the modeling of multiple looks, and the differences between image pixel size and original radar ground resolution. A chi-square distribution and a Rayleigh distribution with multiple file averaging were found to produce the most realistic results.

Reference

Bolter, R., M. Gelautz, and F. Leberl, SAR Speckle Simulation, Int. Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, vol. 31, II, pp. 20-25, 1996.