Wavelet/trellis coded quantization of complex SAR imagery

This paper describes Lockheed Martin's wavelet/trellis coded quantization (W/TCQ) compression algorithm and presents results of quantitative assessment of the impact of data compression on complex SAR data. Compression performance was evaluated both quantitatively using statistical measurements and qualitatively by image analysts. Trade studies of various compression schemes and data formats were also investigated. Data distortion due to compression/decompression was assessed using statistical metrics. Quantitative assessments were performed with error analyses and a simple decision function to address how data compression affects automatic target recognition performance. The magnitude and phase channels can be allocated different compression ratios to maintain both high quality image interpretability and necessary phase fidelity.