A parameter inversion for sea bridge based on high-resolution polarimetric synthetic aperture radar

Abstract

Each reflection return of a bridge over water is displayed as wide stripe in a high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image, which lead to difficulties in a parameter inversion. Therefore, a method of bridge parameter inversion is proposed for high-resolution full polarimetric SAR (PolSAR). First, the single, double and triple-bounce returns from each component of the bridge are distinguished by the polarization scattering features. Then the reasons which lead to the backscatter echoes of the bridge over water being displayed as stripes are analyzed, using a principle of microwave reflection, as well as an extraction method for each reflection return, and a parameter retrieval method is obtained. Finally, the parameters of the bridge, including the height (top and bottom surfaces of the sea bridge), width, thickness, span, and height of the bridge tower, are retrieved using full polarimetric AIRSAR data. When a comparison of the measured data is completed, the results indicate that the proposed method can invert the parameters with a high accuracy, and that the inversion error of the bridge height (bottom surface) is only 1.3%. Moreover, the results also show that for the high-resolution SAR, the C and L-band images have the same ability in regards to parameter retrieval.