Automated Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Quality Assessment

For this Phase I effort, Observera proposes to develop an attribute based system for automated image quality assessment of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Imagery. Observera's expertise in SAR image analysis, image quality assessment and digital image processing algorithms are uniquely suited to this program. The imagery community uses the Radar National Imagery Interpretation Rating System (RNIIRS) as a metric to describe SAR image quality as a function of image utility in task performance. However, RNIIRS is derived from subjective, scene dependent criteria ill suited to automation. Observera personnel have participated in recent studies have correlated RNIIRS with the image domain attributes of brightness, focus, contrast and noise. We will demonstrate that these attributes can be measured algorithmically in formed digital SAR imagery. The metrics from these algorithms will be fed into a classifier that analyzes the metrics and outputs an image quality score that can be correlated back to an RNIIRS rating. This measures the potential usability of the imagery with respect to predicted quality based on collection parameters. Observera will deliver image quality algorithms to measure the attributes of brightness, contrast, focus and noise, as well as a classifier to determine quality based on analysis of these measurements.