Phase unwrapping through a branch-cut based recursive patching method

The processing required for interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) applications includes a technique for unwrapping phase in a two-dimensional region. The phase unwrapping technique is usually based on Goldstein's branch-cut approach [1]. However, this conventional approach has limitations when dealing with interferograms with high noise levels. We present a method based on the conventional approach with two new features: 1. We open cuts and unwrap holes while maintaining overall consistency between phases across cuts around each hole. 2. We recursively fill progressively smaller closed areas by adding rectangular patches, while maintaining maximum phase consistency in the overlapped unwrapped areas. The approach is verified on actual SAR data.