Nearest-Regularized Subspace Classification for PolSAR Imagery Using Polarimetric Feature Vector and Spatial Information

Abstract

Feature extraction using polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) images is of great interest in SAR classification, no matter if it is applied in an unsupervised approach or a supervised approach. In the supervised classification framework, a major group of methods is based on machine learning. Various machine learning methods have been investigated for PolSAR image classification, including neural network (NN), support vector machine (SVM), and so on. Recently, representation-based classifications have gained increasing attention in hyperspectral imagery, such as the newly-proposed sparse-representation classification (SRC) and nearest-regularized subspace (NRS). These classifiers provide excellent performance that is comparable to or even better than the classic SVM for remotely-sensed image processing. However, rare studies have been found to extend this representation-based NRS classification into PolSAR images. By the use of the NRS approach, a polarimetric feature vector-based PolSAR image classification method is proposed in this paper. The polarimetric SAR feature vector is constructed by the components of different target decomposition algorithms for each pixel, including those scattering components of Freeman, Huynen, Krogager, Yamaguchi decomposition, as well as the eigenvalues, eigenvectors and their consequential parameters such as entropy, anisotropy and mean scattering angle. Furthermore, because all these representation-based methods were originally designed to be pixel-wise classifiers, which only consider the separate pixel signature while ignoring the spatial-contextual information, the Markov random field (MRF) model is also introduced in our scheme. MRF can provide a basis for modeling contextual constraints. Two AIRSAR data in the Flevoland area are used to validate the proposed classification scheme. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can reach an accuracy of around 99% for both AIRSAR data by randomly selecting 300 pixels of each class as the training samples. Under the condition that the training data ratio is more than 4%, it has better performance than the SVM, SVM-MRF and NRS methods.

Adversarial Reconstruction-Classification Networks for PolSAR Image Classification

“…Polarimetric synthetic aperture (PolSAR) image classification is one of the most prominent applications in geoscience remote sensing [1]. Over the last few years, substantial amount of PolSAR image data has been put into use [2]. Consequently, PolSAR image classification has gained significant research attention [3,4] and many methods to accomplish this task came into existence [4,5].…”

Self-Paced Convolutional Neural Network for PolSAR Images Classification

“…The method improves the classification accuracy of the PolSAR and reduces the computational burden. Zhang et al [12] proposed a polarimetric feature vector-based PolSAR image classification method using the Nearest-Regularized subspace approach. In addition to considering the spatial information applied to polarization SAR image classification, it introduces MRF in the modeling process, which provides a basis for the model proposed in the research and achieves good results in Flevoland data.…”

A Novel Deep Fully Convolutional Network for PolSAR Image Classification

“…Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR), which can utilize SAR complex images in different polarimetric channels to recognize the orientation, geometric shape, configuration and composition of targets [1], has become one of the most advanced technologies [2]. In the past decades, a large amount of PolSAR data has been acquired as a series of PolSAR systems are put into use [3]. The studies on the applications of PolSAR data, especially PolSAR image classification, have attracted more and more attention [4,5].…”