SAR Image Registration and Segmentation Using an Estimated DEM

Abstract. Synthetic aperture radar SAR images are notoriously di cult to interpret. Segmentation is simpli ed if a digital map is available, to which the image can be registered. Also, registration is simpli ed if a digital elevation model DEM is available. In this paper it is shown that, if a DEM is unavailable, it can be estimated by minimising an energy functional consisting of a measure of agreement between the SAR image and a digital map together with a thin-plate bending-energy term. A computationally-e cient, nite-element algorithm is proposed to solve the optimisation problem. The method is applied to automatically align an airborne SAR image with a digital map of eld boundaries, producing an image which is simultaneously registered and segmented.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1997
• Where: EMMCVPR
• Authors: Chris A. Glasbey
• Keywords: Computer Vision, Digital Map, EMMCVPR 1997, Image, SAR Image