INVESTIGATION OF THE SPECKLE NOISE FILTERS IN ALOS PALSAR IMAGES

Speckle noise is primarily due to the phase fluctuations of the electromagnetic return signals. Since inherent spatial-correlation characteristics of speckle in SAR images are not exploited in existing multiplicative models for speckle noise. In this paper, we investigate the efficiency of the filters: Kuan, Gamma, Enhanced Lee, and Enhanced Frost filters in reduction of speckle noise in forestry area. Selection of the suitable filter can be played an important role in applications such as estimation of biomass in forestry areas. We employ ALOSPALSAR image use L-band frequency for this investigation. The filters test on different sites in PALSAR image of the northern forests part of Iran.