Classification of hybrid-pol data using novel cross-polarisation estimation approach

A novel cross-polarisation ( S HV 2 ) estimation approach is proposed, which can be used to calculate the real part of co-polarisation cross-product [ ℜ ( S HH S VV ⋆ ) ] value. The term ℜ ( S HH S VV ⋆ ) is well known and widely used in full-polarimetric (full-pol) decomposition techniques. Its role in the hybrid-pol analysis is investigated. Using ℜ ( S HH S VV ⋆ ) , a maximum-likelihood-based classifier is proposed. For performance evaluation, the classification results obtained using the proposed algorithm is compared with that of conventional m − δ and modified m − χ techniques. Pixel-wise comparisons of these three techniques are carried out over two different datasets, by considering full-pol as the standard basis.