Polarimetric Orientation Angle Research Articles

A Novel Point Target Attitude Compensation Method Using Electromagnetic Reflectance Theory

During the process of the airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system platform in space, platform attitude deflection is inevitable. However, large attitude deflection angles are unacceptable for polarimetric calibration using point targets, especially the dihedral, which is very sensitive to the pointing angle of the radar. To mitigate the impact of attitude angles on calibration accuracy, attitude compensation of the corner reflector is necessary during the calibration process. The conventional approach to attitude compensation typically maps the three-dimensional attitude angle information to the one-dimensional polarimetric orientation angle (POA) information. However, the reduction of dimension inevitably results in information loss, leading to errors that affect calibration performance when the attitude angle is large. In order to ensure the accuracy of point target calibration, this paper proposes a novel point target compensation method based on the reflection theory of electromagnetic waves. This method is based on three-dimensional attitude angle information and has higher reliability than the POA method. Finally, this paper calculates the distance between the scattering matrices obtained after compensation based on the proposed method and the POA method to obtain the difference in the performance of the two methods. Through a simulation, this paper finds that when the attitude angle is small, the results of the two schemes are approximately the same, but as the attitude angle increases, the error between the two gradually increases. This suggests that the proposed method has greater advantages in the case of attitude deflection. Furthermore, the proposed method does not require additional information supplementation compared with the equivalent POA method, making it highly practical.

A Novel Topography Retrieval Algorithm Based on Single-Pass Polarimetric SAR Data and Terrain Dependent Error Analysis

Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) data provide an alternative way for topography retrieval, especially when limited PolSAR data are available. This article proposes a novel topography retrieval algorithm based on the Lambertian backscatter model that further improves the vertical precision of digital elevation model (DEM) generation and requires only one flight. The key idea of the proposed algorithm is to avoid data fluctuations caused by the ratio of the azimuth slope angle to the polarimetric orientation angle (POA). The previous research has confirmed the feasibility of generating a DEM based on single-pass PolSAR data, but its effect on the quality of reference DEM has not been well-explained. To analyze this effect, a large number of experiments on DEM with different resolutions are conducted. In addition, an in-depth analysis of non-linear and terrain-dependent errors is performed. The L-band PolSAR data of NASA/JPL TOPSAR and ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 and interferometric SAR (InSAR) DEM data are used to verify the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show that PolSAR data can be used as an additional reliable information source for DEM fusion under certain conditions to improve the quality of public DEM.

Multi-Temporal Speckle Filtering of Polarimetric P-Band SAR Data over Dense Tropical Forests: Study Case in French Guiana for the BIOMASS Mission

The purpose of this paper is twofold, considering first the generalization of a multichannel speckle filter in order to handle temporal stacks of polarimetric SLC SAR data, and secondly the development of an ad hoc performance indicator based on the Polarimetric Orientation Angle (POA) in order to better estimate the resulting speckle reduction than the standard Equivalent Number of Looks (ENL) over densely vegetated regions, like tropical forests. Being based on the ability of PolSAR measurements to retrieve ground slopes through dense vegetation, this performance indicator requires the use of low frequencies such as P-band, as well as fully polarimetric data. This study has thereby a particular interest in the context of the upcoming BIOMASS spaceborne mission whose launch is scheduled in 2023, and makes use of data from the TropiSAR airborne campaign initiated in the early stage of the mission developments. Conducted over several test sites of tropical dense forests in French Guiana, this campaign gives us the opportunity herein to exploit P-band temporal stacks with repeated time intervals transposable to BIOMASS in terms of signal decorrelation. The application of the generalized multichannel speckle filter to the Paracou test site dataset reveals the limitations of the standard ENL analytical formula to assess speckle reduction in the case of spatially correlated media like dense forests, and for this purpose the interest of the correlation between POA and azimuthal slopes computed from an independent Digital Surface Model.

Polarimetric SAR Decomposition by Incorporating a Rotated Dihedral Scattering Model

In this letter, we propose a new scattering model to describe the polarimetric scattering information of the real part of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$T_{23}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in the coherency matrix. To achieve this goal, by combining the dihedral corner reflector scattering model and the polarimetric orientation angle (POA), a rotated dihedral scattering model is proposed. The proposed model is embedded into Singh’s six-component decomposition model, and we further develop a seven-component decomposition model. The proposed method was validated by polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data sets acquired by the ALOS-2/PALSAR-2 and AIRSAR systems. The results show that, compared with the existing decomposition methods, the proposed method has a superior ability to distinguish oriented buildings from vegetation.

Scattering Modeling of Urban Oriented Buildings in PolSAR images by Using Adaptive Statistical Distribution

The cross-polarized scattering (HV) of polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) data is caused not only by forest but also by urban buildings with azimuth orientation angles. Since the general double scattering in model-based decomposition does not support their dominant scattering mechanism, it’s still a challenge for modeling the scattering mechanism of oriented buildings. In this paper, the HV induced by oriented buildings is modeled by a rotated dihedral corner reflector. The cross scattering matrix of oriented building is obtained by averaging a cosine squared distribution with its peak at the dominant polarimetric orientation angle (DPOA) of an area and an adaptive width. The relation between DPOA and distribution width is acquired. Then an optimization strategy which eliminates the negative power and balances time and efficiency is proposed to estimate the scattering contributions. The proposed algorithm is tested on AIRSAR data of San Francisco and UAVSAR of San Diego and the results confirm the effectiveness.

Derivation of the Orientation Parameters in Built-Up Areas: With Application to Model-Based Decomposition

This paper concerns two polarization orientation parameters of built-up areas derived from the polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) data considering two modeling orthogonal dihedral structures. The first orientation parameter is derived from the well-known circular polarization algorithm with the enrichment of arc distance median filtering using an adaptive neighborhood. The derivation of the second orientation parameter is realized by combining the slope-induced changes in polarimetric orientation angle with the shape-from-shading technique. The combination provides the possibility to measure the incidence angle and the azimuth component of the terrain slopes from the cross-pol SAR intensity image. With reference to the cross scattering model, a doubled cross scattering model (DCSM) is introduced by incorporating the orientation parameters, thus serving to guide the model-based decomposition. Using the DCSM refines the estimation of the cross-pol component by enabling us to further reveal the scattering characteristics of built-up areas. Following a novel criterion, the decomposition is implemented at two layers: one for urban areas and one for nonurban areas. The performance of parameter derivation is demonstrated and evaluated with airborne synthetic aperture radar, uninhabited aerial vehicle synthetic aperture radar, and GF-3 fully PolSAR data over different test sites. The decomposed results are consistent with the reference information provided by the National Land Cover Database 2011 about the land cover classification of test sites and encourage the use of the proposed decomposition scheme for different applications.

Adaptive Two-Component Model-Based Decomposition for Polarimetric SAR Data Without Assumption of Reflection Symmetry

Fitting polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) data with adaptive scattering models is a promising way to mitigate the deficiencies of the model-based decomposition. Recently, Lee et al. have proposed a generalized decomposition model with several adaptive parameters, whereas the generalized model introduces too much freedom to be solved. In this paper, based on the Lee generalized decomposition model, an adaptive two-component decomposition model is proposed. The PolSAR coherency matrix is represented as the sum of two scattering mechanisms: coherent ground scattering and incoherent volume scattering. The proposed model is under three assumptions: 1) Surface and double scattering are coherent; 2) surface and double scattering are integrated as the ground scattering; and 3) the average polarimetric orientation angle (POA) of the volume (or Bragg) scattering is zero. As the proposed model is very difficult to solve directly, we adopted the exhaustion technique to find the best fit parameter set. The proposed model has three advantages: 1) It can successfully avoid the negative power problem; 2) it is considered without the assumption of reflection symmetry; and 3) the dominant scattering mechanism criterion is not needed in the process of model inversion. However, the proposed model has two disadvantages: 1) the attribution of the volume model becomes ambiguous; and 2) the assumption that sets the POA of the Bragg scattering component to zero is inconsistent with the actual scattering mechanism when there is a slope in the rough surface. The polarimetric AIRSAR L-band data of San Francisco and ESAR L-band data of Oberpfaffenhofen were used to show the efficiency of the proposed decomposition model. Statistical properties of typical areas showed that, except the sea surface and the urban area with building orientation angle about 45°, the proposed model fits the PolSAR data very well.

The Impacts of Building Orientation on Polarimetric Orientation Angle Estimation and Model-Based Decomposition for Multilook Polarimetric SAR Data in Urban Areas

Building orientation with respect to the radar look direction has a critical influence on the interpretation of multilook polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) data in urban areas. In this paper, its impacts on polarimetric orientation angle (POA) estimation and model-based decomposition are discussed. The discussion begins with the analysis of the general double-bounce scattering model, of which the characteristics are dependent on the electromagnetic and geometric parameters of the related dihedral structure. Then, for multilook PolSAR data, the polarimetric scattering mechanism in urban areas is modeled by two double-bounce scatterings from two orthogonal dihedral structures. From the model, the impacts of the building orientation on POA estimation can be revealed. With the increase of the building orientation, the POA difference between the two dihedral structures increases gradually, and the feasibility to estimate the building orientation via the estimated POA is reduced dramatically. Upon further analysis, we illustrate the impacts on the model-based decomposition. With the increase of the building orientation, the dominant scattering mechanism labeling technique based on the model-based decompositions will gradually become invalid. Moreover, the processing of POA compensation, which is helpful in reducing the impacts of the building orientation, also becomes invalid when the building orientation increases to a certain value. At last, three L-band data sets of San Francisco acquired by AIRSAR are used to verify the inferences. The experimental results show that, for L-band PolSAR data in urban areas, when the radar look angle is around 45, the threshold of building orientation for the validity of dominant scattering mechanism labeling is about ±3, and for the POA compensation, the threshold is about ±12.

ALTERNATIVE TO FOUR-COMPONENT DECOMPOSITION FOR POLARIMETRIC SAR

There are more unknowns than equations to solve for previous four-component decomposition methods. In this case, the nonnegative power of each scattering mechanism has to be determined with some assumptions and physical power constraints. This paper presents a new decomposition scheme, which models the measured matrix after polarimetric orientation angle (POA) compensation as a linear sum of five scattering mechanisms (i.e., odd-bounce scattering, double-bounce scattering, diffuse scattering, volume scattering, and helix scattering). And the volume scattering power is calculated by a slight modified NNED method, owing to this method considering the external volume scattering model from oblique dihedral structure. After the helix and volume scattering powers have been determined sequentially, the other three scattering powers are estimated by combining the generalized similarity parameter (GSP) and the eigenvalue decomposition. Among them, due to POA compensation, the diffuse scattering induced from a dihedral with a relative orientation of 45º has negligible scattering power. Thus, the new method can be reduced as four-component decomposition automatically. And then the ALOS-2 PolSAR data covering Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, China were used to evaluate the performance of the new method in comparison with some classical decomposition methods (i.e. Y4R, S4R and G4U).

ALTERNATIVE TO FOUR-COMPONENT DECOMPOSITION FOR POLARIMETRIC SAR

Abstract. There are more unknowns than equations to solve for previous four-component decomposition methods. In this case, the nonnegative power of each scattering mechanism has to be determined with some assumptions and physical power constraints. This paper presents a new decomposition scheme, which models the measured matrix after polarimetric orientation angle (POA) compensation as a linear sum of five scattering mechanisms (i.e., odd-bounce scattering, double-bounce scattering, diffuse scattering, volume scattering, and helix scattering). And the volume scattering power is calculated by a slight modified NNED method, owing to this method considering the external volume scattering model from oblique dihedral structure. After the helix and volume scattering powers have been determined sequentially, the other three scattering powers are estimated by combining the generalized similarity parameter (GSP) and the eigenvalue decomposition. Among them, due to POA compensation, the diffuse scattering induced from a dihedral with a relative orientation of 45º has negligible scattering power. Thus, the new method can be reduced as four-component decomposition automatically. And then the ALOS-2 PolSAR data covering Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, China were used to evaluate the performance of the new method in comparison with some classical decomposition methods (i.e. Y4R, S4R and G4U).

Polarimetric SAR Data Correction and Terrain Topography Measurement Based on the Radar Target Orientation Angle

Topographic variations caused by the range and the azimuth terrain slopes induce polarization orientation changes which cause the polarization to rotate about the line of sight. The existence of these variations reduce the accuracy measurement of geophysical parameters from polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) images. For this reason most inversion studies are best done in area of flat earth. In area which has significant terrain variations require compensation for topography. In real situations, terrain slopes rotate the polarization basis of the polarimetric scattering matrices by an orientation angle shift, and induce significant cross-polarization power. In this paper, two methods have been investigated using the polarimetric orientation angle (PAO): the first one involves the rotation of the polarimetric scattering and coherency matrices to achieve maximum azimuthally asymmetry for polarimetric data compensation to ensure accurate estimation of geophysical parameters in rugged terrain areas. The second approach has been developed which measures azimuth and range terrain slopes that are related to shifts in polarization orientation angle. Terrain elevation maps relative to a plane parallel to the radar line of sight can then be generated by integrating these slopes requiring only one PolSAR flight pass by combing orientation angle estimation and a shape-from-shading technique (SFS) which is mostly used by the computer vision community. Experimental results with C-band polarimetric RADARSAT2 data are used evaluate the data compensation algorithm and DEM generation.

Improved airborne PolSAR calibration algorithm based on time-variant attitude compensation

The polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) usually has to be calibrated before practical application, so as to compensate for polarimetric distortion. The varying platform attitude is one of the factors causing distortion but has rarely been considered in existing polarimetric calibration algorithms. With the resolution of PolSAR systems improving and the synthetic aperture time prolonging, this factor cannot simply be ignored. The varying attitude will distort the polarimetric information by rotating the polarimetric orientation angle, and such distortion changes with azimuth time. In this article, we modified the conventional polarimetric system model to take account of the time-variant impact of the unstable platform attitude. A calibration algorithm is proposed to compensate the time-variant attitude impact on the raw return data. The proposed calibration algorithm is tested on the data collected by Institute of Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences P-band PolSAR system. Results show that it can achieve better performance by reducing crosstalk error than two conventional methods.

Topography Retrieval From Single-Pass POLSAR Data Based on the Polarization-Dependent Intensity Ratio

At present, many polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (POLSAR) remote sensing applications still perform radio metric terrain correction, whereas other types of terrain slope analysis rely on Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer digital elevation model (DEM) databases. However, the terrain relief characteristics present in fully POLSAR images can also be used for topography retrieval from single-flight data. Based on the analysis of the polarization signature peak shift, we propose a new topography retrieval algorithm based on the polarization-dependent intensity ratio. The intensity term conforms to both the polarimetric orientation angle shift model and the Lambertian scattering model, which is refined for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging geometry. This is useful in avoiding solving an ill-conditioned problem, and it is more practical than considering the two models independently. Another key idea of this algorithm is the derivation of a second-order residual error equation for revising the ground-range slope error with homogeneous media using the full multigrid (FMG) technique. Furthermore, the “fake” topographic relief effect induced by geophysical terrain variations is also considered and reduced by including an $\bar{\alpha} $ scattering angle-based weighting coefficient in the second-order residual error equation. In addition, a first-order residual error equation combined with tie points is proposed for calculating the least squares estimation of the height from slope integration by FMG. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory AIRSAR and UAVSAR L-band POLSAR and interferometry SAR DEM data are used to illustrate and validate this algorithm. Our results demonstrate the high potential of this method for employing a low- resolution DEM to match the corresponding high-resolution POLSAR data.

Co-polarization channel imbalance determination by the use of bare soil

This paper describes a novel technique which determines the co-polarization channel imbalance by the use of natural bare soil, instead of a trihedral corner reflector (CR). In polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) remote sensing, the polarimetric calibration (PolCAL) is the key technique in quantitative earth parameter measurement. In general, the current PolCAL process can be separated into two parts. The first part tries to estimate the crosstalk and the cross-polarization (x-pol) channel imbalance components by the reflection symmetry and the reciprocity properties, without a CR. Then, at least one trihedral CR is required to determine the co-polarization (co-pol) channel imbalance; however, it is not always possible to deploy a CR in difficult terrain such as desert. In this paper, we utilize bare soil as a stable reference target, and four common natural constraints of bare soil are evaluated to determine the co-pol channel imbalance, without the use of a CR. It should be mentioned that we do not propose to replace the CR by a natural target, but we utilize the natural target to enhance the PolCAL accuracy when a CR is missing. The four constraints are: (1) the consistency of the polarimetric orientation angle (CPOA) between the PolSAR POA and the digital elevation model (DEM) derived POA; (2) the unitary zero POA (UZPOA) of a flat ground surface; (3) the zero helix (ZHEX) component of the ground surface; and (4) the unitary version of the previous zero helix (UZHEX). In the theoretical part of this paper, we demonstrate that the forth constraint is the most suitable in different scenes. We then propose a multi-scale algorithm to further improve the robustness of the co-pol channel imbalance determination. In the experimental part, we apply our new methods to simulated airborne SAR (AIRSAR) and real uninhabited aerial vehicle SAR (UAVSAR) data. Without the use of any CR, the recovered results show that the estimated amplitude and phase error of the co-pol channel imbalance are less than 0.5dB and 5°, respectively.

Power line detection from synthetic aperture radar imagery using coherence of co-polarisation and cross-polarisation estimated in the Hough domain

Power lines are an important target type in topographic mapping, as well as in post-disaster and post-strike damage detection. A method of detecting power lines from polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (POLSAR) data using the coherence between the co- and cross-polarisation is proposed based on the azimuth symmetry of the clutter. First, the scattering of power lines is analysed from the aspects of radar cross-section and polarimetric response. Next, the covariance and coherence between the co- and cross-polarisation of power lines and clutter are characterised, and a constant false-alarm rate detector based on the coherence statistics is proposed. In order to obtain a high accuracy, the coherence is estimated in the Hough domain, and the proposed method is improved by considering the sign of the polarimetric orientation angle and using only the real part of the coherence. In addition, the coherence in the special case of azimuth symmetrical power lines is estimated using rotated scattering matrix. Finally, the proposed detector is demonstrated using both simulated and real P-band POLSAR data.

Measurement of ocean surface slopes and wave spectra using polarimetric SAR image data

Methods have been investigated which use fully polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image data to measure ocean slopes and wave spectra. Independent techniques have been developed to measure wave slopes in the SAR azimuth and range directions. The azimuth slope technique, in particular, is a more direct measurement than conventional, intensity based, backscatter cross-section measurements. In the azimuth direction, wave-induced perturbations of the polarimetric orientation angle are used to sense the wave slopes. In the range direction, a new technique involving the alpha parameter from the Cloude–Pottier H - A - ᾱ (Entropy, Anisotropy, and (averaged) Alpha) polarimetric scattering decomposition theorem is used to measure slopes. Both measurement types are sensitive to ocean wave slopes and are directional. Taken together, they form a means of using polarimetric SAR (POLSAR) image data to make complete measurements of either ocean wave slopes, or directional wave spectra. These measurements must still contend with fundamental nonlinearities in the SAR image processing (i.e., azimuth direction “velocity bunching”) that are due to wave velocity and acceleration effects. NASA/JPL/AIRSAR L-, and P-band data from California coastal waters were used in the studies. Wave parameters measured using the new methods are compared with those developed using both conventional SAR intensity based methods, and with in situ NOAA National Data Center buoy measurement products.

Measurement of ocean surface slopes and wave spectra using polarimetric SAR image data

Methods have been investigated which use fully polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image data to measure ocean slopes and wave spectra. Independent techniques have been developed to measure wave slopes in the SAR azimuth and range directions. The azimuth slope technique, in particular, is a more direct measurement than conventional, intensity based, backscatter cross-section measurements. In the azimuth direction, wave-induced perturbations of the polarimetric orientation angle are used to sense the wave slopes. In the range direction, a new technique involving the alpha parameter from the Cloude–Pottier H- A- ᾱ (Entropy, Anisotropy, and (averaged) Alpha) polarimetric scattering decomposition theorem is used to measure slopes. Both measurement types are sensitive to ocean wave slopes and are directional. Taken together, they form a means of using polarimetric SAR (POLSAR) image data to make complete measurements of either ocean wave slopes, or directional wave spectra. These measurements must still contend with fundamental nonlinearities in the SAR image processing (i.e., azimuth direction “velocity bunching”) that are due to wave velocity and acceleration effects. NASA/JPL/AIRSAR L-, and P-band data from California coastal waters were used in the studies. Wave parameters measured using the new methods are compared with those developed using both conventional SAR intensity based methods, and with in situ NOAA National Data Center buoy measurement products.