A Study on Dark Line Features Observed in SAR Images of Forest Areas

—Taking a Case of L-band SAR Imaging of the Northern Yucatan Peninsula—

Abstract

This paper describes an algorithm for deriving line features generated by roads in forests from L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The algorithm traces connected dark pixels successively, while avoiding meaning-less linear features generated by speckle and connecting interruptions in dark line features due to bright back-scattering from trees. The algorithm has been applied to L-band SAR images of the northern Yucatan Peninsula where a substantial amount of roads of the Maya Age are known to exist, and has operated satisfactorily.