Low-pass spatial filtering of satellite radar data

Abstract

Thirty-four low-pass spatial filter treatments were applied to a multi-angle SIR-B data set to reduce speckle effects and improve classification performance. These treatments were based on four algorithms: square mean, separable mean, square median, and separable recursive median. The filtered images were evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. It was determined that the square median algorithm implemented at two iterations with a window size of 3 by 3 produced the best overall results with the 28.5-m SIR-B data.