Projection pursuit classification of multiband polarimetric SAR land images

Results are presented for an experiment utilizing a pastoral land scene with a variety of eight classes, imaged by the NRL dual band (X and L) polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (NUWSAR) at a spatial resolution of 1.2 m. Projection pursuit statistical analysis tools were applied to a set of simultaneous L and X-band fully polarized images (six independent channels) to demonstrate the utility of land classification at high spatial resolution from a light aircraft using SAR. The statistical confusion matrix was used as a quantitative optimization measure of classification. Samples of eight classes from a portion of the scene were used to define a training set, then projection pursuit (PP) tools were used for classification. It is clear that L-band and X-band fully polarized data view the classes in a significantly different manner, and each brings independent information to the analysis. These results are not meant to be exhaustive at this time but to demonstrate the utility of applying PP tools to multiband and polarization SAR data and to give an indication of the quality of classification one can achieve with moderately high spatial resolution SAR data using a light plane platform.