Advanced Concepts In Polarimetry. Part 2: Polarimetric Target Classification

Abstract : There is currently widespread interest in the development of radar sensors for the detection of surface and buried targets and the remote sensing of land, sea and ice surfaces. An important feature of electromagnetic radiation is its state of polarization and a wide range of classification algorithms and inversion techniques have recently been developed based on the transformation of polarization state by scattering objects. There are three primary ways in which multi-parameter radar measurements can be made: multi-frequency. single or multi-baseline interferometry and multi-polarization. While several airborne systems can now provide diversity over all three of these it is the combination of polarimetry with interferometry at a single wavelength that forms the central focus of future challenges in developing new and original data processing. The main reason for this is the imminent launch of a series of advanced satellite radar systems such as PALSAR, an L-band SAR sensor onboard the NASDA ALOS satellite, and Radarsat II, a C-band polarimetric sensor. These are typical of a new generation of radars with the potential for providing data from various combinations of polarimetry and interferometry. This paper seeks to review recent progress in polarimetric and interferometric SAR data processing, covering advances and addressing the important topic of classification of polarimetric SAR data. Indeed classification of Earth terrain components within a full polarimetric SAR image is one of the most important applications of Radar Polarimetry in Remote Sensing.