Unsupervised classification of the weak backscattering scatterers by the use of PolSAR imagery

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the separability of targets with weak backscattering on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images by using of an unsupervised classification method. This technique is a combination of the Cloude target decomposition and the likelihood ratio test based on complex Wishart distribution for the polarimetric covariance matrix. The polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) image is initially classified by the H − α plane into eight classes. The dissimilar distance measure is derived from the statistical test of equality of covariance matrices. Significant improvement of the classification results are observed for weak backscattering targets in iterations. The effectiveness of this algorithm is demonstrated using a Radarsat-2 PolSAR image in C band and an ALOS PALSAR PolSAR image in L band.