A novel full-polarization SAR image ship detector based on scattering mechanisms and wave polarization anisotropy

Abstract

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is suitable for earth observation due to its unique advantages. In this study, we constructed an adaptive ship detector using full-polarization SAR images. First, we thoroughly investigated the differences in scattering characteristics between ships, their background, and the wave polarization anisotropy. We then constructed a novel ship detector that incorporates scattering and anisotropy (known as joint scattering–anisotropy [joint-SA]). We found that joint-SA is an effective physical quantity representing the difference between the ship and its background; thus, joint-SA can be used for ship detection using full-polarization image data. Second, we used generalized gamma distribution to characterize joint-SA statistics of sea clutter with a large homogeneity range. Third, an adaptive constant false alarm rate (CFAR) method was implemented based on joint-SA. Finally, RADARSAT-2 and GF-3 data in the C-band and ALOS data in the L-band were used for verification. We tested five datasets, and the experimental results verified the correctness and superiority of the CFAR method based on joint-SA. The results show that the signal–clutter ratio of the proposed ship detector (33.17 dB, 35.98 dB, and 57.25 dB) was higher than that of DBSP (8.92 dB, 3.43 dB, and 25.40 dB) and RsDVH (17.28 dB, 11.17 dB, and 54.55 dB). Furthermore, the proposed detector has a higher detection accuracy and lower false alarm rate than those of the other two other methods.