Scattering Analysis of Urban Targets with Simulated SAR Imagery

This paper studies the scattering behavior of urban environments using simulated data generated with GRECOSAR, a SAR simulator of complex targets. Large series of scattering maps have been obtained at C/X band for qualitative models of real buildings. They belong to a neighborhood where RSLab is carrying out a campaign with a Ground-based SAR (GB-SAR) for urban subsidence monitoring. The analysis of the simulated data with Coherent Target Decompositions has allowed to improve the polarimetric interpretation of real images trying to shed light on the relations between target?s geometry and observed scattering mechanisms. The main conclusion is that the polarimetric behavior of urban targets is strongly dependent on the observation conditions, which includes incidence and orientation angles and geometric changes associated to human activity. The geometrical complexity of a building, the impact of human activity and, consequently, the time dimension are the most restrictive parameters to be considered when analyzing polarimetric images of urban areas. This confirms that the characterization of urban geometries in terms of their reflectivity is difficult.