Application of decomposition theories to experimental scattering data from dielectric rough surfaces

Abstract

The results of the polarimetric analysis of the experimental data taken in the European Microwave Signature Laboratory at JRC, relative to two different rough surfaces, are presented. Firstly, it is shown how the staistics of the reflected field, represented on the polarisation chart, depend on roughness, frequency, dielectric constant and incidence angle : this consideration already permits a rough and qualitative discrimination among the analysed surfaces ('smooth surface', 'rough surface'). An alternative criterion, founded on the application of the decomposition theorems by Cloude, Huynen and Krokager, is then suggesed and evaluated. In fact, it is shown that the parameters extracted from such theorems (the entropy and the parameter ? associated to the coherency matrix decomposition; the Euler angle ? of the single-target and the trace of the N-target relative to Mueller matrix decomposition ; the coefficients kd and kh coming from the decomposition of an averaged Sinclair matrix) also depend on the physical characteristics of the terrain ; this kind of analysis leads to an efficient and accurate discrimination among the two considered surfaces.