Research Progress and Prospects of Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Colorization Algorithms

CHEN Yongkang; WANG Peng; ZHU Daiyin; ZHANG Gong

doi:10.12000/JR26035

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CHEN Yongkang, WANG Peng, ZHU Daiyin, et al. Research progress and prospects of synthetic aperture radar image colorization algorithms[J]. Journal of Radars, in press. doi: 10.12000/JR26035

Citation:

CHEN Yongkang, WANG Peng, ZHU Daiyin, et al. Research progress and prospects of synthetic aperture radar image colorization algorithms[J]. Journal of Radars, in press. doi: 10.12000/JR26035

CHEN Yongkang, WANG Peng, ZHU Daiyin, et al. Research progress and prospects of synthetic aperture radar image colorization algorithms[J]. Journal of Radars, in press. doi: 10.12000/JR26035

Citation:

CHEN Yongkang, WANG Peng, ZHU Daiyin, et al. Research progress and prospects of synthetic aperture radar image colorization algorithms[J]. Journal of Radars, in press. doi: 10.12000/JR26035

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Research Progress and Prospects of Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Colorization Algorithms

DOI: 10.12000/JR26035 CSTR: 32380.14.JR26035

CHEN Yongkang¹,
WANG Peng^{1, 2
,
,},
ZHU Daiyin^{1, 2},
ZHANG Gong¹

1.
School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China
2.
Shenzhen Research Institute, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Shenzhen 518131, China

Funds: The National Natural Science Foundation of China (92464204, 61801211, 62471221), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2025A1515010258), Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (JCYJ20240813180005007, JCYJ20230807142000001), Open Project Funds for National Key Laboratory of Space Target Awareness (STA2025ZCC0403), Open Project Funds for National Key Experiment on Advanced Off Road System Technology (201NKL-2025-O-02-05), Shenzhen Longhua Science and Technology Innovation Special Funding Project (Industrial Sci-Tech Innovation Center of Low-Altitude Intelligent Networking)

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Corresponding author: WANG Peng, Pengwang_B614080003@nuaa.edu.cn
Received Date: 2026-01-30
Rev Recd Date: 2026-03-27

Available Online: 2026-04-10

Abstract

Abstract

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a remote sensing technology that utilizes the principle of synthetic aperture to achieve high-resolution microwave imaging. SAR image colorization is a fundamental and crucial task in remote sensing. Unlike optical imaging, SAR imaging is unaffected by clouds and fog, enabling all-weather observation of the Earth. However, owing to its imaging principle, SAR images are grayscale images; hence, they lack spectral information and have extremely low visual clarity. Therefore, numerous studies have focused on enhancing the interpretability of SAR images by incorporating color information. This paper reviews existing SAR image colorization techniques and categorizes them into three types: traditional SAR image colorization techniques, deep-learning–based SAR-to-optical image colorization techniques, and SAR image colorization techniques based on radiometric property preservation. Finally, we summarize the application scenarios and future development directions.
- Synthetic aperture radar (SAR),
- colorization,
- color information,
- deep learning,
- radiometric property preservation

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References(137)

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Research Progress and Prospects of Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Colorization Algorithms

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Research Progress and Prospects of Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Colorization Algorithms

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