Enhancing complex interferograms by anisotropic diffusion

In this paper a new algorithm for interferometric phase restoration is presented. Firstly, a continuous framework for anisotropic phase diffusion is stated. A tensorial based metric allows directional control. The periodic continuous structure of the phase representation is accounted for. Secondly, this framework is adapted for interferometric phase filtering. Progressive re-estimation of directionality avoids directional bias. Isotropy and anisotropy are adaptively combined with a constant overall diffusion rhythm, so that the degree of regularization is the same regardless of the underlying topography. Robust estimation minimizes the spread of outliers. Results on both synthetic and TerraSAR-X data are provided.