1. An MRI apparatus comprising: a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system having a plurality of gradient coils positioned about a bore of a magnet to impress spatially dependent changes to a polarizing magnetic field and an RF transceiver system and an RF switch controlled by a pulse module to collect RF signals from an array of RF receiver coils to acquire MR images; and a computer programmed to: a) acquire MR data from an imaging volume for a plurality of encoding locations using the array of RF receiver coils; b) calculate correlation values from the MR data; c) generate synthesis weights based on the correlation values; d) reconstruct an image based on an application of the synthesis weights to at least a portion of the MR data acquired from the array of RF receiver coils.