A Modified General Polarimetric Model-Based Decomposition Method With the Simplified Neumann Volume Scattering Model

Abstract

This letter proposes a modified general polarimetric model-based decomposition method which includes a simplified Neumann volume scattering model (SNVSM). This is useful to avoid a known limitation in one of the state-of-the-art general model-based decomposition methods (i.e., Chen’s method), which considers only four possible discrete volume scattering models. Two types of SNVSM, assuming horizontal or vertical dipoles, are derived from the Neumann volume scattering model. The resulting volume coherency matrix exhibits a continuous range of volume scattering models. In addition, this volume model covers both random and nonrandom volume cases, which are distinguished by a randomness parameter. Monte Carlo simulations are used to test this approach. The proposed method with SNVSM overall improves the final accuracy of estimated parameters in comparison with the original approach and shows consistency with another existing generalized volume scattering model (GVSM). In addition, results from two fully polarimetric C- and L-band AIRSAR images over San Francisco region show that the proposed method produces reasonably physical results and outperforms the traditional Y4R method. Finally, the differences obtained between SNVSM and GVSM in two building areas show the potential advantage of SNVSM in identifying more types of volume scenes than that of GVSM.