Change detection on SAR images using divisive normalization-based image representation

In the context of multi-temporal synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images for earth monitoring applications, one critical issue is the detection of changes occurring after a natural or an-thropic disaster. In this paper, we propose a new similarity measure for automatic change detection based on a divisive normalization image representation. The divisive normalization transform (DNT) has been recognized as a successful methodology to model the perceptual sensitivity of biological vision and a useful image representation that significantly reduces statistical dependence of natural images. In this work, we exploit the fact that the histogram of DNT coefficients within wavelet subbands can often be well fitted with a zero-mean Gaussian density function, which is a one-parameter function that allows efficient change detection of SAR images. The proposed change detector is compared to other recent modelbased approaches. Tests on real data show that our detector outperforms previously suggested methods in terms of the rate of false alarm rate and the total error rate.