APPLICATION OF MDL CRITERION FOR MICROWAVE IMAGING BY MUSIC ALGORITHM

Multiple signal classiflcation (MUSIC) algorithm has been applied to localize small scatterers for super-resolution imaging. A problem associated with this application is the estimation of the number of scatterers in presence of noise and multiple scattering between targets. In this paper, we show that the mathematical model behind the scattering from the small objects is well compatible with the minimum description length (MDL) model. This leads us to use the MDL so as to estimate the number of scatterers before application of the MUSIC algorithm. As the MDL assumes the sources are independent, the nearby wave sources are grouped together to improve the independency criterion. The application of MDL to synthetic and experimental data verifles accurate estimation of the target number with low complexity, even if the data embodies signiflcant noise and multiple scattering.