Fast Phase Estimation Approach for Distributed Scatterer Based on Power Method

Distributed scatterer (DS) possesses a medium signal-to-noise ratio, and its interferometric phase is typically estimated from sample covariance matrix (SCM) using phase linking algorithm. However, the phase estimation of DS is very time consuming. The eigenvalue decomposition (EVD) methods benefit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chuanguang Zhu, Yangqi Gao, Liya Zhang, Mengguang Liao, Wenhao Wu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11003219/
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Distributed scatterer (DS) possesses a medium signal-to-noise ratio, and its interferometric phase is typically estimated from sample covariance matrix (SCM) using phase linking algorithm. However, the phase estimation of DS is very time consuming. The eigenvalue decomposition (EVD) methods benefit from highly optimized eigen-decomposition libraries and therefore have a higher computational efficiency. Nevertheless, EVD methods are still insufficient due to the massive data provided by modern SAR satellites with multipolarizations and high spatiotemporal resolution. The essence of conventional EVD methods is to decompose the SCM (or modified SCM) with a series of eigenvalue-eigenvector pairs and then select only the eigenvector corresponding to the largest eigenvalue as the optimal estimate. Inspired by that, we proposed a fast phase estimation approach based on power method (PM), a straightforward algorithm that approximates the largest eigenvalue and its associated eigenvector. The convergence rate of PM depends on the ratio between the second and the first largest eigenvalue, i.e., <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\lambda_{2}}/{\lambda_{1}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. We demonstrate that there is an intrinsic correlation between <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\lambda_{2}}/{\lambda_{1}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> and the traditional quality measure (&#x03B3;<sub>PTA</sub>). Based on this correlation, we design two termination criteria for PM to enable fast and accurate phase estimation. Experiments with simulated and real SAR data demonstrate that PM achieves comparable phase estimation accuracy to EVD but is 3&#x2013;6 times faster. In addition, we compare the computational efficiency and accuracy of EVD, PM, and the eigendecomposition-based maximum likelihood estimator of interferometric phase, providing practical guidance for different application scenarios.
ISSN:1939-1404
2151-1535