A novel threshold template algorithm for ship detection in high-resolution SAR images

A new threshold template algorithm is presented in this paper to improve the performance in ship detection in high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The algorithm introduces SAR formation theories into detection. First, we divide the image into tiles within which the sea background can be treated as homogeneous one. Second, we use a threshold template method to detect candidate ship pixels in each tile. The data model and point spread function model together decide the parameters of the template. Third, group candidate pixels together and exclude false alarms. The template method exploits the relationship between neighbor pixels, which characterise high-resolution images. Experiments validate the algorithm with good performance.