Finding Underground Targets by Means of Change-Detection Methods in Huynen Spaces

Abstract

A different and useful approach is presented for detecting new events in a scene, such as the presence or absence of landmines or perhaps the movement of people, vehicles, or structures. The approach rests on the radar examination of an area several times, once, before there are targets present, and the other (or others) after. The change detection algorithm notices if there are any changes after the first view. In the present approach the prospective target is represented, not in terms of three complex elements of a scattering matrix, but in terms of phenomenologically-based Huynen parameters. Each element of the Huynen parameter set conveys a different type of physical and geometrical attribute about the scatterers, thus the potential for significant false-alarm mitigation is increased. We provide results of the application of this approach on fully polarimetric signatures of simulated pairs of buried cylindrical targets. These results indicate the following. 1) Huynen parameters are more effective for change detection than the scattering matrix elements because of their ability to generate higher unambiguous autocorrelation peaks and fewer dominating cross-correlation curves. 2) A large number of symmetries are observed in the plots of the Huynen parameters for both one and two buried cylinders. These symmetries may eventually lead to further classification insights. 3) By using standard Prony methods, relevant resonance frequencies are extracted from the parameter plots, from which the height of either one of the cylinders is estimated. 4) The diameter of either cylinder can also be obtained by a simple procedure based on ray-tracing and time delays. Numerical calculations substantiate all the above assertions.