Three-Dimensional Target Scattering Classification Using Full-Rank Polarimetric Tomographic SAR Focusing

Abstract

This paper deals with the characterization of permanent scatterers in polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of urban environment. To this aim, the main purpose of this paper is to investigate how spaceborne SAR tomography (TomoSAR) can be employed to identify and distinguish the target scattering mechanisms. Along this, the conventional H-α classifier can be adapted to the reconstructed polarimetric coherence matrix, i.e. T, in a multi-dimensional space. However, dealing with multitemporal multi-baseline satellite images, the accurate tomographic reconstruction requires permanent scatterers between all the acquisitions. To cope with this issue, a generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT)-based tomographic approach for polarimetric SAR tomography is developed. The proposed framework of scatterer detection and characterization is evaluated using TerraSAR-X polarimetric multi-baseline data sets over an urban area in France.