Impact of lossy wavelet-based image compression on ATR discrimination performance

This work investigates the effect of lossy, wavelet-based image compression on ATR performance using SAR imagery. Specifically, we use the Lincoln Laboratory designed, ATR discriminator to consider how ATR performance varies with compression ratio. We vary compression ratio using two variables: threshold value and quantization number. First, we consider the problem of optimizing performance through the choice of compression variables, given a selected feature set. Next, we consider the problem of selecting the feature set that optimizes performance, given a specified compression ratio. We find that when features are classified by type, their performance as a function of compression ratio can be generalized.