Improved Point Estimation for the Rayleigh Regression Model

The Rayleigh regression model was recently proposed for modeling amplitude values of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image pixels. However, inferences from such model are based on the maximum-likelihood estimators, which can be biased for small-signal lengths. The Rayleigh regression model for SAR images often considers small pixel windows, which may lead to inaccurate results. In this letter, we introduce bias-adjusted estimators tailored for the Rayleigh regression model based on: 1) Cox and Snell’s method; 2) Firth’s scheme; and 3) the parametric bootstrap method. We present numerical experiments considering synthetic and actual SAR data sets. The bias-adjusted estimators yield nearly unbiased estimates and accurate modeling results.