Fusion of multiparametric SAR images based on SW-nonsubsampled contourlet and PCNN

In this paper, a new fusion rule based on a pulse coupled neural network (PCNN) and the clarity of images is proposed for multi-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image fusion. By using a stationary wavelet-based nonsubsampled contourlet transform (SW-NSCT), we can calculate a flexible multiscale, multidirectional, anisotropy and shift-invariant representation of registered SAR images. A weighted fusion rule is performed on the low frequency subbands to calculate the fused lowpass band. For the fusion of high frequency directional subband images, a PCNN model is constructed, where the linking strength of each neuron is determined by the clarity of the decomposed subband images. The fusion approach exploits the advantages of both SW-NSCT in multiscale geometric representations and that of PCNN in the determination of fusion rules; as predicted, the obtained fusion image can preserve much more information regarding textures and edges of the images, compared to its counterparts. Some experiments are performed by comparing the new algorithm with other existing fusion rules and methods. The experimental results show that the proposed fusion approach is effective and can provide better performance in fusing multi-band SAR images than some current methods.