A robust change detection feature for Cosmo-SkyMed detected SAR images

Automated change analysis of multi-temporal SAR images is a challenging task due to the inherent noisiness of SAR imagery and the variability of the backscattering coefficient to the acquisition angle. Several methods have been proposed in the literature to improve the change detection performances with respect to the classical method based on the Log-Ratio operator. In this paper a pixel change feature is proposed and tested on true Cosmo-SkyMed detected images for damage assessment applications. The method does not require any despeckling pre-processing and is robust both to the acquisition noise and to possible variation of the acquisition angle in the two observations.