The phase of complex signals is wrapped since it can only be measured modulo-2/spl pi/; unwrapping searches for the 2/spl pi/-combinations that minimize the discontinuity of the unwrapped phase, as only the unwrapped phase can be analyzed and interpreted by further processing. Given an estimate of the phase gradient (i.e., of the instantaneous frequency), the 2-D unwrapped phase can be obtained as a solution of a variational problem. The analysis of unwrapping is done quite separately from instantaneous frequency estimation so that the reliability of both steps can be assessed independently. Various methods for evaluating 2-D instantaneous frequency are presented and compared in the presence of noise and amplitude variations. A study has also been made on aliasing arising in areas where, with respect to instantaneous frequency, spatial sampling is insufficient. The presence of noise in the data further complicates phase aliasing analysis since there is no way to distinguish between the aliasing due to noise or that due to steep phase slopes. >