Polarimetric SAR Target Scattering Interpretation in Rotation Domain: Theory and Application

Backscattering of radar targets is sensitive to the relative geometry between target orientations and the radar line of sight. This scattering diversity makes imaging radar represented by polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) information processing and applications very difficult. This situation has become one of the main bottlenecks in the interpretation of the target scattering mechanism and quantitative applications. In this work, we review and introduce a new interpretation of the target scattering mechanism in the rotation domain along the radar line of sight. This concept includes the recently established uniform polarimetric matrix rotation theory and polarimetric coherence pattern visualization and interpretation in the rotation domain. The core idea of target scattering interpretation in the rotation domain is to extend the amount of target information acquired at a given geometry to the rotation domain, which then provides fundamentals for the deep mining and utilization of target scattering information. This work mainly focuses on the investigation of derived new polarimetric feature sets and application demonstrations. Comparison study results validate the promising potential for the application of the established interpretation framework in the rotation domain with respect to target discrimination and classification

Evaluating the Sensitivity of Polarimetric Features Related to Rotation Domain and Mapping Chinese Fir AGB Using Quad-Polarimetric SAR Images

Unaffected by cloud cover and solar illumination, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images coupled with quad-polarimetric techniques have significant potential for mapping forest aboveground biomass (AGB) in the mountains of southern China. To improve the accuracy of mapping forest AGB, it is necessary to accurately interpret and evaluate the sensitivity of polarimetric features related to polarimetric response in complex forests. In this study, several rotated polarimetric features were extracted from L-band quad-polarimetric ALOS PALSAR-2 images based on uniform polarimetric matrix rotation theory. In addition, the sensitivity of rotated polarimetric features with forest parameters was evaluated by the Pearson correlation coefficient, sensitivity index (SI), and saturation levels. Ultimately, the forest AGB was mapped with various combinatorial feature sets by a proposed feature selection method based on the sensitivity index. The results illustrated that rotated polarimetric features extracted from the rotational domain have higher sensitivity with various forest parameters and higher saturation levels for mapping forests than other traditional features. After using the proposed feature selection method and combinatorial feature sets, the rRMSE of mapped forest AGB ranged from 22.5% to 33.9% for two acquired images, and the best result was obtained from the combination of three types of polarimetric features (BC + C4 + Ro). It is also confirmed that different types of features extracted from quad-polarimetric SAR images have better compensation effects and the accuracy of mapped forest AGB is significantly improved

PolSAR Land Cover Classification Based on Roll-Invariant and Selected Hidden Polarimetric Features in the Rotation Domain

Land cover classification is an important application for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR). Target polarimetric response is strongly dependent on its orientation. Backscattering responses of the same target with different orientations to the SAR flight path may be quite different. This target orientation diversity effect hinders PolSAR image understanding and interpretation. Roll-invariant polarimetric features such as entropy, anisotropy, mean alpha angle, and total scattering power are independent of the target orientation and are commonly adopted for PolSAR image classification. On the other aspect, target orientation diversity also contains rich information which may not be sensed by roll-invariant polarimetric features. In this vein, only using the roll-invariant polarimetric features may limit the final classification accuracy. To address this problem, this work uses the recently reported uniform polarimetric matrix rotation theory and a visualization and characterization tool of polarimetric coherence pattern to investigate hidden polarimetric features in the rotation domain along the radar line of sight. Then, a feature selection scheme is established and a set of hidden polarimetric features are selected in the rotation domain. Finally, a classification method is developed using the complementary information between roll-invariant and selected hidden polarimetric features with a support vector machine (SVM)/decision tree (DT) classifier. Comparison experiments are carried out with NASA/JPL AIRSAR and multi-temporal UAVSAR data. For AIRSAR data, the overall classification accuracy of the proposed classification method is 95.37% (with SVM)/96.38% (with DT), while that of the conventional classification method is 93.87% (with SVM)/94.12% (with DT), respectively. Meanwhile, for multi-temporal UAVSAR data, the mean overall classification accuracy of the proposed method is up to 97.47% (with SVM)/99.39% (with DT), which is also higher than the mean accuracy of 89.59% (with SVM)/97.55% (with DT) from the conventional method. The comparison studies clearly demonstrate the efficiency and advantage of the proposed classification methodology. In addition, the proposed classification method achieves better robustness for the multi-temporal PolSAR data. This work also further validates that added benefits can be gained for PolSAR data investigation by mining and utilization of hidden polarimetric information in the rotation domain

Polarimetric SAR Terrain Classification Using Polarimetric Features Derived from Rotation Domain

Terrain classification is an important application for understanding and interpreting Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) images. One common PolSAR terrain classification uses roll-invariant feature parameters such as H/A/a/SPAN. However, the back scattering response of a target is closely related to its orientation and attitude. This frequently introduces ambiguity in the interpretation of scattering mechanisms and limits the accuracy of the PolSAR terrain classification, which only uses roll-invariant feature parameters for classification. To address this problem, the uniform polarimetric matrix rotation theory, which interprets a target’s scattering properties when its polarimetric matrix is rotated along the radar line of sight and derives a series of polarimetric features to describe hidden information of the target in the rotation domain was proposed. Based on this theory, in this study, we apply the polarimetric features in the rotation domain to PolSAR terrain discrimination and classification, and develop a PolSAR terrain classification method using both the polarimetric features in the rotation domain and the roll-invariant features of H/A/a/SPAN. This method also uses both the selected polarimetric feature parameters in the rotation domain and H/A/a/SPAN as input for a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier and achieves better classification performance by complementing the terrain discrimination abilities of both. Results from comparison experiments based on AIRSAR and UAVSAR data demonstrate that compared with the conventional method, which only uses H/A/a/SPAN as SVM classifier input, the proposed method can achieve higher classification accuracy and better robustness. For fifteen terrain classes of AIRSAR data, the total classification accuracy of the proposed method was 92.3%, which is higher than the 91.1% of the conventional method. Moreover, for seven terrain classes of multi-temporal UAVSAR data, the averaged total classification accuracy of the proposed method was 95.72%, which is much higher than the 87.80% of the conventional method. These results demonstrate that our proposed method has better robustness for multi-temporal data. The research also demonstrates that mining and extracting polarimetric scattering information of a target deep in the rotation domain provides a feasible new approach for PolSAR image interpretation and application