Comprehensive analysis of polarimetric radar cross-section parameters for insect body width and length estimation

Abstract

The length and width of insect body are critical parameters for entomological radar species identification. However, the body width is not measurable in entomological radar currently. In this study, the scattering matrices (SM) of 159 insect specimens were measured using an X-band fully polarimetric laboratory rig in a microwave anechoic chamber. The relationships between the polarimetric radar cross-section (RCS) parameters extracted from the SM and the insect body width were studied. It was found that all these parameters have good correlations with the body width and can be used to estimate it. The mopping relationships between the polarimetric RCS parameters and the body width are built, and can be used as empirical formulas for insect body width estimation. In addition, based on these parameters, two new body length estimation methods were proposed. The performance of the proposed body width and length estimation methods when the echo signals were noisy was analyzed. It was found that the parameter that represents the product of the RCSs when the polarization direction is parallel and perpendicular to the insect body axis has the best performance for both the estimation of body width and length.