CFAR Line Detector for Polarimetric SAR Images Using Wilks' Test Statistic

In this letter, a constant false-alarm rate line detector for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (Pol-SAR) images is presented based on Wilks' test statistic, which can be used to test the equality of two covariance matrices following the complex Wishart distribution. Due to the two-tailed nature, Wilks' test statistic can detect both bright and dark features. The probability distribution of the proposed detector is derived and verified using simulated Pol-SAR images. Experimental results on both simulated and measured Pol-SAR data show the effectiveness of the proposed detector and its superiority over the traditional detector based on the Wishart likelihood-ratio test statistic.