Wavelet based approaches for efficient compression of complex SAR image data

New wavelet based approaches for efficient data compression of complex SAR images with high reconstruction quality are presented. These approaches utilize either a polar format representation to compress magnitude and phase information of the complex SAR images, separately by different compression schemes, or use a Fourier transform scheme to convert the complex image data format to a real data format before applying the wavelet decomposition technique. In both concepts the phase information of the compressed images is preserved in great extent. Additionally, a concept based on vector quantization is used, taking advantage of the correlation between polarization channels for data compression in multi-polarization channel modes. Therefore, these approaches are suitable for data compression in both interferometric and polarimetric applications. Finally, the quality of the reconstructed images are compared in terms of compression ratio and proved by image quality parameters.