Amplitude and Phase Statistics of Multi-look SAR Complex Interferogram

Amplitude and phase statistics of SAR complex interferogram are significant in the study of interferometry and polarimetry. To reduce statistical variations, multi-look processing is adopted by averaging spatially the complex interferogram. In this study, we derive and validate three kinds of probability density functions (PDFs) of multi-look interferogram for different surface feature scenes. For simple homogeneous areas with the gamma distribution intensity, a concise product-form interferometry phase PDF is derived, which is equivalent to a conventional Gauss hypergeometric PDF. For complicated areas with the K and G0 distributions intensity, two new interferometry amplitude PDFs named as Gamma-K and Gamma-G are proposed, and their phase PDFs are approximately preserved. Finally three typical areas including grass, mountain, and city are picked out from a pair of RADARSAT-2 SAR images and studied. Experimental results indicate good agreement between the computed histograms and the theoretical distributions. The results obtained can be applied to the feature classification of polarisation SAR data and the estimation of decorrelation effect of interferometric SAR. Science Journal, Vol. 64, No. 6, November 2014, pp.564-570, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.64.4747