Shadow Extraction of Buildings from
High-Resolution SAR Data via the Combination of
Amplitude Reversal and Total Variation
Di Feng, Tianyun Wang, Weidong Chen
Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Space Information of Chinese Academy of Sciences
University of Science and Technology of China
Hefei, Anhui, 230027, P. R. China
Email: d1988@mail.ustc.edu.cn, wangty@mail.ustc.edu.cn, wdchen@ustc.edu.cn
AbstractFor building shadow extraction from high-resolution
synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, traditional image process-
ing methods cannot fundamentally overcome the high sidelobe
interference of SAR images. In this paper, a novel technique
is proposed via the combination of amplitude reversal and
total variation (TV). Instead of SAR image processing, it uses
SAR raw echo signal for sparse reconstruction. The technique
mainly considers two scattering properties of building shadow:
the zero scattering intensity and the extended block sparsity.
Amplitude reversal is proposed to restrain the former, while TV
is exploited to restrain the latter. Then the problem becomes a
combined cost function minimization, and the gradient projection
method is used for solution. Simulation results and comparison
with traditional methods show the eectiveness and performance
improvement of the proposed method, with fewer echo samples
used.
Index TermsBuilding shadow extraction, synthetic aperture
radar (SAR), amplitude reversal, total variation (TV).
I. Introduction
Over the past years, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) tech-
nology has achieved great progress. New spaceborne SAR
sensors have spatial resolutions down to 1 m. In such high-
resolution data, SAR scattering features of buildings, like
shadow, layover and double-bounce, can be extracted and used
for building detection and reconstruction [1]-[4]. Among these
SAR scattering features, shadow contains the most information
of building shape and size. Besides, unlike other features (e.g.,
double-bounce varies greatly in dierent orientation angles
between buildings and ight direction), the intensity of shadow
is constant. So, shadow extraction is crucial and reliable for
building reconstruction.
Dierent techniques for shadow extraction of buildings have
been proposed in the literature. For instance, [5], [6] extracted
building shadows using Markovian classication and mean
shift clustering, respectively. Besides, Shadowing is identied
by comparing the scattering power of that area with the
vicinity in [3]. In [4], Shadow is segmented according to
the edges extracted from the min-fused magnitude image.
However, these traditional image processing methods cannot
fundamentally overcome the high sidelobe interference and
speckle of SAR images. Especially, the high sidelobe of the
978-1-4673-7297-8/15/$31.00 2015
c IEEE
scattering centers around the shadow would invade the shadow
area and blur its edges, which will make the following building
detection and reconstruction inaccurate and even incorrect.
This paper proposes a novel technique for shadow extrac-
tion. Instead of SAR image, it starts with SAR raw echo
signal. Two main scattering properties of building shadow
are highlighted. Then a combined cost function with two
parts is constructed as the constraints for the two scattering
properties: For the zero scattering intensity, amplitude reversal
is proposed, while for the extended block sparsity, total
variation (TV) [7] is used. To minimize the combined cost
function, the gradient projection method [8] is exploited. The
eectiveness and eciency of our method are veried by
numerical experiment and comparison with previous methods,
with fewer echo samples used.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section
II presents the scattering properties of buildings in SAR
views. The amplitude reversal and total variation-based sparse
reconstruction for building shadow extraction is detailed in
Section III. In Section IV, simulation results and analysis are
given. Section V draws the conclusion.
II. Scattering Properties of Building Shadow
In SAR system, the imaging of buildings is aected by
the side-looking viewing geometry. Typical SAR scattering
eects include layover, double-bounce and shadow. Take a
parallelepiped building prototype for example. Its 3D model,
schematic SAR scattering mechanism, simulated radar cross
section (RCS) scattering map (speckled) and SAR image are
shown in Fig. 1. Mapping and projection algorithm (MPA)
[9] is used for scattering map simulation and raw echo signal
generation. Range-Doppler algorithm (RDA) is used for SAR
imaging. (For comparison, the results in Fig. 1 will be used
for the following simulation in Section 4).
Fig. 1(b) and (c) shows two main scattering properties of
building shadow: the zero scattering intensity and the extended
block sparsity. For the former, because shadow is generated by
shielding from objects, its intensity is zero, far lower than other
scattering features. The latter means that for each building,
only a block area far smaller than the size of the whole scene
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Fig. 1. Parallelepiped building prototype: (a) 3D model built by Autodesk 3ds Max. (b) SAR scattering mechanism. (c) Simulated radar cross section (RCS)
scattering map (speckled). (d) SAR image. Mapping and projection algorithm (MPA) [9] is used for scattering map simulation and raw echo signal generation.
Range-Doppler algorithm (RDA) is used for SAR imaging.

is shadow, and the surrounding areas are backscattering or R is the instantaneous distance between the sensor with a
double-bounce with relatively high intensity. velocity v at tm and the target at position (x, r). That is,
Traditional image processing-based methods start with SAR 
images. However, SAR images have high sidelobe interfer- R = r2 + (x vtm )2 (4)
ence. The high sidelobes of strong scattering centers cover the
So Eq.(2) can be expressed in vector form. i.e., the relation
weak scattering centers and make it hard to be identied. The
between and s can be written as a linear representation
shadow can be regarded as many weak scattering centers with
model [10]
continuous distribution, so the high sidelobe of the scattering
s= A+n (5)
centers around the shadow would invade the shadow area
and blur its edges [see Fig. 1(d)]. Unlike traditional methods, where A denotes the measurement matrix of SAR echo signal,
the proposed method starts with SAR raw echo signal and and n represents the additive noise.
builds cost functions as the constraints for these two scattering In practice, A, s and n are complex. In order to use the
properties respectively. Therefore, it can suppress the sidelobe proposed method from the complex data, dene
eectively and achieve a high shadow extraction accuracy.    
Re(A) Im(A) Re (s)T
A= , s= ,
III. Amplitude Reversal and Total Variation-Based Sparse Im(A) Re( A) Im (s)T
    (6)
Reconstruction Re ()T Re (n)T
= , n =
Im ()T Im (n)T
Given the two main scattering properties of building shad-
ow, the shadow extraction can be regarded as the sparse So, SAR signal model Eq.(5) can be expressed as a real
reconstruction from high-resolution SAR data. The proposed linear signal model eventually
methodology is detailed as follow.
s= A+n (7)
A. SAR signal model B. Combined Amplitude Reversal and Total Variation Cost
Let (x, r) be the RCS scattering map. It is discretized as Function
(i, j) at azimuth coordinate xi and slant-range coordinate r j . Section II highlights the zero scattering intensity and the
(i, j) can be represented as scattering coecient vector . extended block sparsity of building shadow. The cost function
Similarly, SAR echo signal can be represented as vector s. of our method is constructed to enforce the two scattering
Suppose the sensor transmits a linear frequency modulated properties.
(LFM) signal: For the zero scattering intensity, an amplitude reversal cost
t function is dened as
s(t) = rect( ) exp( j2 fc t + jt2 ) (1) N |i |
T (, p) = e p (8)
i=1
where fc denotes carrier frequency, is LFM chirp rate, T is
where p is an auxiliary variable. There are three main reasons
pulse repetition time, and rect(t) denotes the unit rectangular
for choosing this cost function. First, it is a decreasing
function. Then the SAR echo signal is derived
function. The smaller the |i |, the larger the function value. It

can reverse the amplitude of a scattering map, make shadow
sr (t, tm ) = (x, r) a(t, tm , x, r)dxdr (2) area outstanding and suppress the other scattering eects in the
reversed map. Second, in comparison with a linear amplitude
where t represents the fast-time, tm denotes the slow-time, and reversal function like () = 1 , it is closer to axes, which
a(t, tm , x, r) is expressed as means nding its minimum point is easier for sparse solution.
t R 2R 2 Third, it is exible with a adjustable shape parameter p. Duo
a(t, tm , x, r) = rect( ) exp[ j4 fc + j(t )] (3) to the fact that the derivation of e/p ( /p
e = 1p e/p )
T c c

2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR) 789

does not approaches innity when p 0, it is easier to design
gradient projection.
For the extended block sparsity, high gradient value occurs
only on the edge of shadow. So gradient values are also sparse.
To describe the sum of sparse gradients, TV is used. According
to the cost function form Eq.(8) of amplitude reversal, we
dene TV as
  |(i+1, j)(i, j)| |(i, j+1)(i, j)|
T Var,p () = (e p + e p ) (9) (a) (b)
i j

Combining Eq.(7), Eq.(8) and Eq.(9), the shadow extraction

becomes a minimization problem:

= arg min(1 )(, p) + T Var,p ()

  (10)
subject to s A 2 <
where is a tradeo factor emphasizing the balance between
isolated scattering centers and edges. is a small positive
(c) (d)
number relating the norm of n.
Fig. 2. Binary images expressing the results of building shadow extraction
C. Gradient Projection Method of the test scene by three methods: (a) Original building shadow. (b) Mean
To solve the optimization problem in Eq.(10), the gradient shift ltering [6]. (c) Markovian classication [5]. (d) Proposed method using
50% echo samples. The 3D model, RCS scattering map and SAR image of
projection method is used. The algorithm consists of two loop the test scene is shown in Fig .1(a), (c) and (d), respectively.
layers. The outer loop is a traversal of p from large value
to small value, and in the inner loop gradient projection step
is iterated for a proper number of times. For every step, the Step 2: A binary map S (i, j) is determined by
algorithm nds the steepest descent gradient direction and thresholding on (i, j) with a threshold T . To be
moves a proper step size. The algorithm structure is the same specic, if |(i, j)| < T , This point is judged as
as [8], except the regularization substeps 1.2) and 2.2.4) for shadow and S (i, j) = 1. Otherwise it is not shadow
the sake of amplitude reversal. The detailed procedure is as and S (i, j) = 0.
follows: Step 3: Correct the missing alarms and false alarms
1) Initialization: caused in sparse reconstruction. If a non-shadow points
1.1) Let 0 be equal to the minimum 2 norm solution four adjacent points are all judged as shadow points,
of s = A, i.e. 0 = A s. i.e., S (i 1, j) = 1, S (i, j 1) = 1 but S (i, j) = 0,
1.2) Set a suitable decreasing sequence for the shape the isolated non-shadow point is a missing alarm due
parameter p as [p1 , p2 , ..., p J ] and dene a value thresh- to the continuity of shadow area. Correct its S (i, j)
old T . back to 1. On the contrary, if a shadow points four
2) for j = 1, ..., J (outer loop): adjacent points are all judged as non-shadow points,
2.1) Fix p = p j . i.e., S (i 1, j) = 0, S (i, i, j 1) = 0 but S (i, j) = 1,
2.2) Initialize = j 1. For l = 1, ..., L (inner loop): the isolated shadow point is a false alarm. Correct its
2.2.1) Calculate the gradient of combined cost S (i, j) back to 0.
function in Eq.(10). Afterwards, the shadow map S (i, j) is nally derived. The
2.2.2) Gradient projection: p (where area where S (i, j) = 1 is extracted as the building shadow.
is a small positive variable which can be varying
with j and l). IV. Simulation Results and Analysis
2.2.3) If |A s|2 > , project back into the
feasible set: + AH ( AAH )1 (s A). For simulation, we establish a urban scene in Autodesk 3ds
2.2.4) Regularization: if i > T , let i = . Max, which is composed by an isolated building placed on a
2.3) Set j = . rough ground, as shown in Fig. 1(a). To simplify the problem,
3) Final solution: = J . the building is modeled as a parallelepiped with at surfaces,
which means we mainly consider at walls and at roof,
D. Final Shadow Extraction while the presence of windows and balconies are neglected
After nding the optimal solution of Eq.(10), three for their little inuence in SAR imaging. Besides, all the
additional steps are performed to derive the nal shadow map. surfaces, including walls, roof and ground, are modeled here
Step 1: The real vector is translated back into by a Gaussian stochastic process with Gaussian autocorrelation
complex map, denoted as (i, j). function. In fact, the isolated assumption is hard to meet

790 2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR)

 TABLE I
Detection Rate (DR) and Mean Gradient Error (MGE) of Three Methods
Method Mean shift ltering [6] Markovian classication [5]
DR 83%
MGE 0.089
because contributions of the adjacent buildings may partially
overlap each other. However, this scene represents a simple
but very fundamental and canonical case. The simulations and
analysis on such case are preliminary compulsory steps for
more complex, practical urban scene in the future work.
Then, the proposed method is performed using the SAR raw
echo data of the test scene. Besides, two methods based on
traditional image processing methods for shadow extraction,
i.e., mean shift ltering [6] and Markovian classication [5],
are compared with our method, using the SAR image of the
same test scene. In the procedure of simulation, The SAR
platform has 0.5m (azimuth)0.5m (slant-range) resolution
and HH polarization. The incidence angle of SAR sensor
is 45 . The signal to noise ratio (SNR) is set to 10dB. Given
these platform parameters, the RCS scattering map (speckled)
(x, r) [Fig. 1(c)] and the SAR raw echo data are generated
via the MPA [9]. The SAR image is derived by RDA from the
same SAR raw echo data and shown in Fig. 1(d). It should
be noted that our method uses only 50% echo samples, while
the other two methods require all echo samples.
Fig. 2 shows the intuitive results of building shadow extrac-
tion by the three methods. Both the shadow areas extracted by
mean shift ltering [6] and Markovian classication [5] can
not factually reconstruct the original building shadow in Fig.
2(a). Their edges are covered and blurred by the high sidelobe
of the surrounding scattering centers in dierent degrees
[Fig. 2(b), (c)]. By contrast, the proposed method clearly
reconstructs the majority of shadow. Benet from sidelobe
reduction of sparse reconstruction and gradient enhance of TV,
the edges of the shadow are well retrieved, too [Fig. 2(d)].
In addition, to evaluate the three methods quantitatively, two
performance criterias are considered: the detection rate (DR)
and the mean gradient error (MGE). The DR is dened as
 
i j [S (i, j) S (i, j)]
DR =   (11)
i j S (i, j)
, where S (i, j) represents the original building shadow map.
The MGE is dened as
1 Process., vol. 20, no. 10, pp. 2748C2759, 2011.
MGE = G(S (i, j)) G(S (i, j))1 (12)
N [8] C. Ma, T. S. Yeo, Y. Zhao and J. Feng, MIMO radar 3D imaging based
where G(S (i, j)) and G(S (i, j)) are the image gradients of
map S (i, j) and S (i, j). N is the total number of pixels of
S (i, j) and S (i, j). DR indicates the whole recovery accuracy
of shadow, and MGE indicates the edge recovery accuracy of
shadow. The DR and MGE of the three methods are given
in Table I. Compared with traditional methods, the proposed
method has both better DR and MGE, which means our
method outperforms the traditional methods in terms of either
whole recovery or edge recovery of building shadow, with
fewer echo samples used.
2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR)
Proposed Method using 50% echo samples
92% 98%
0.052 0.009
V. Conclusion
A building shadow extraction technique based on the com-
bination of amplitude reversal and total variation has been
proposed and veried on simulation evidences. It clearly
reconstructs the majority of building shadow. Benet from
sidelobe reduction of sparse reconstruction and gradient en-
hance of TV, the edges of the shadow are well retrieved, too.
It is veried by the numerical evidences that compared with the
traditional methods, the proposed method has better capacities
in both either whole recovery or edge recovery of building
shadow, with fewer echo samples used.
Acknowledgment
The work in this paper is supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (No. 61331020).
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