A three-component scattering model for polarimetric SAR data

An approach has been developed that involves the fit of a combination of three simple scattering mechanisms to polarimetric SAR observations. The mechanisms are canopy scatter from a cloud of randomly oriented dipoles, evenor double-bounce scatter from a pair of orthogonal surfaces with different dielectric constants and Bragg scatter from a moderately rough surface. This composite scattering model is used to describe the polarimetric backscatter from naturally occurring scatterers. The model is shown to describe the behavior of polarimetric backscatter from tropical rain forests quite well by applying it to data from NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPLs) airborne polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (AIRSAR) system. The model fit allows clear discrimination between flooded and nonflooded forest and between forested and deforested areas, for example. The model is also shown to be usable as a predictive tool to estimate the effects of forest inundation and disturbance on the fully polarimetric radar signature. An advantage of this model fit approach is that the scattering contributions from the three basic scattering mechanisms can be estimated for clusters of pixels in polarimetric SAR images. Furthermore, it is shown that the contributions of the three scattering mechanisms to the HH, HV, and VV backscatter can be calculated from the model fit. Finally, this model fit approach is justified as a simplification of more complicated scattering models, which require many inputs to solve the forward scattering problem     

Seasonal and short-term variability of multifrequency, polarimetricradar backscatter of Alpine terrain from SIR-C/X-SAR and AIRSARdata

Signatures of glaciated and ice free areas were analyzed from polarimetric SAR data at C-, L-, and P-band and single polarization X-band data. The data base includes an AIRSAR scene from June 25, 1991, and SIR-C/X-SAR images from April and October 1994 (SRL-1 and SRL-2), acquired over the high Alpine test site O¨tztal in Austria. The environmental conditions were different at the time of the three experiments. Ground measurements, meteorological observations, and backscattering modeling are the basis for interpreting the backscattering signatures. Seasonal differences are due mainly to the presence or absence of snow and due to changes of its properties. Short term variations of snow conditions can be monitored at C- and X-band. For unglaciated areas, the surface roughness has a dominant influence on backscattering in all seasons. The dependence of the mean backscattering and correlation coefficients on the incidence angle was analyzed. Spectral and depolarization ratios and the magnitude of the HHVV correlation coefficient were selected as components of the multidimensional feature vector for studying the target separability. Good separability was found between the accumulation and ablation areas on the glaciers, whereas on ice-free areas, the dominance of surface roughness limits the discrimination of different surface types. Short-term variations of backscattering have significant impact for the classification of accumulation and ablation areas on glaciers, as verified by comparisons with field data     

Radar polarimetry: analysis tools and applications

The authors have developed several techniques to analyze polarimetric radar data from the NASA/JPL airborne SAR for Earth science applications. The techniques determine the heterogeneity of scatterers with subregions, optimize the return power from these areas, and identify probable scattering mechanisms for each pixel in a radar image. These techniques are applied to the discrimination and characterization of geologic surfaces and vegetation cover, and it is found that their utility varies depending on the terrain type. It is concluded that there are several classes of problems amenable to single-frequency polarimetric data analysis, including characterization of surface roughness and vegetation structure, and estimation of vegetation density. Polarimetric radar remote sensing can thus be a useful tool for monitoring a set of Earth science parameters     

An entropy based classification scheme for land applications ofpolarimetric SAR

The authors outline a new scheme for parameterizing polarimetric scattering problems, which has application in the quantitative analysis of polarimetric SAR data. The method relies on an eigenvalue analysis of the coherency matrix and employs a three-level Bernoulli statistical model to generate estimates of the average target scattering matrix parameters from the data. The scattering entropy is a key parameter is determining the randomness in this model and is seen as a fundamental parameter in assessing the importance of polarimetry in remote sensing problems. The authors show application of the method to some important classical random media scattering problems and apply it to POLSAR data from the NASA/JPL AIRSAR data base     

Inferring snow wetness using C-band data from SIR-C's polarimetricsynthetic aperture radar

In hydrological investigations, modeling and forecasting of snow melt runoff require timely information about spatial variability of snow properties, among them the liquid water content-snow wetness-in the top layer of a snow pack. The authors' polarimetric model shows that scattering mechanisms control the relationship between snow wetness and the copolarization signals in data from a multi-parameter synthetic aperture radar. Along with snow wetness, the surface roughness and local incidence angle also affect the copolarization signals, making them either larger or smaller depending on the snow parameters, surface roughness, and incidence angle. The authors base their algorithm for retrieving snow wetness from SIR-C/X-SAR on a first-order scattering model that includes both surface and volume scattering. It is applicable for incidence angles from 25°-70° and for surface roughness with rms height ⩽7 mm and correlation length ⩽25 cm. Comparison with ground measurements showed that the absolute error in snow wetness inferred from the imagery was within 2.5% at 95% confidence interval. Typically the free liquid water content of snow ranges from 0% to 15% by volume. The authors conclude that a C-band polarimetric SAR can provide useful estimates of the wetness of the top layers of seasonal snow packs     

Intensity and phase statistics of multilook polarimetric andinterferometric SAR imagery

Polarimetric and interferometric SAR data are frequently multilook processed for speckle reduction and data compression. The statistical characteristics of multilook data are quite different from those of single-look data. The authors investigate the statistics of their intensity and phase. Probability density function (PDF's) of the multilook phase difference, magnitude of complex product, and intensity and amplitude ratios between two components of the scattering matrix are derived, and expressed in closed forms. The PDF's depend on the complex correlation coefficient and the number of looks. Comparisons of these theoretically derived PDF's are made to measurements from NASA/JPL AIRSAR data. The results of this paper can be applied to feature classification using polarimetric SAR and to the estimation of decorrelation effects of the interferometric SAR     

Unsupervised segmentation of polarimetric SAR data using thecovariance matrix

A method for unsupervised segmentation of polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data into classes of homogeneous microwave polarimetric backscatter characteristics is presented. Classes of polarimetric backscatter are selected on the basis of a multidimensional fuzzy clustering of the logarithm of the parameters composing the polarimetric covariance matrix. The clustering procedure uses both polarimetric amplitude and phase information, is adapted to the presence of image speckle, and does not require an arbitrary weighting of the different polarimetric channels; it also provides a partitioning of each data sample used for clustering into multiple clusters. Given the classes of polarimetric backscatter, the entire image is classified using a maximum a posteriori polarimetric classifier. Four-look polarimetric SAR complex data of lava flows and of sea ice acquired by the NASA/JPL airborne polarimetric radar (AIRSAR) are segmented using this technique     

SVM全极化SAR图像分类中的特征选择

本文将SVM用于全极化SAR图像分类,并提出一种新的应用于SVM分类的特征选择算法。该算法以支持向量个数作为特征评估准则,利用顺序前进法加入特征。基于NASA/JPL实验室AIRSAR系统的L波段荷兰Flevoland全极化数据的与RELIEF-F算法的对比实验表明,在特征个数更少(或相当)的情况下,本文特征选择算法能在更广泛的SVM参数取值范围内获得更高的分类精度。     

基于支持向量机的极化SAR图像分类

与传统最大似然（ML）分类器相比，支持向量机（SVM）在小训练样本时仍具有良好的分类性能，目前已广泛应用于多个领域。该文在极化SAR特征提取的基础上，将SVM应用于极化SAR图像分类，分析了分类器参数对分类性能的影响。利用NASA／JPL实验室AIRSAR系统的L波段旧金山全极化SAR数据比较了SVM和ML的分类性能，并进一步给出了基于SVM的国内某地区双极化SAR图像分类结果。     

Forest variable estimation from fusion of SAR and multispectral optical data

Radar and optical remote sensing data are used in a unified algorithm to estimate forest variables. The study site is the H. J. Andrews experimental forest in Oregon, which has significant topography and several mature and old-growth conifer stands with biomass values sometimes exceeding 1000 tons/ha. Polarimetric multifrequency Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) backscatter, interferometric C-band Topographic Synthetic Aperture Radar (TOPSAR) coherence, and multispectral Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) digital numbers are used in a regression analysis that relates them to forest variable measurements on the ground. Parametric expressions are derived and used to estimate the same variables(s) at other locations from the combination of AIRSAR and TM data. It is shown that the estimation accuracy is significantly improved when the radar and optical data are used in combination compared to estimating the same variable from a single data type alone.     

Unsupervised classification of multifrequency and fullypolarimetric SAR images based on the H/A/Alpha-Wishart classifier

Introduces a new classification scheme for dual frequency polarimetric SAR data sets. A (6×6) polarimetric coherency matrix is defined to simultaneously take into account the full polarimetric information from both images. This matrix is composed of the two coherency matrices and their cross-correlation. A decomposition theorem is applied to both images to obtain 64 initial clusters based on their scattering characteristics. The data sets are then classified by an iterative algorithm based on a complex Wishart density function of the 6×6 matrix. A class number reduction technique is then applied on the 64 resulting clusters to improve the efficiency of the interpretation and representation of each class. An alternative technique is also proposed which introduces the polarimetric cross-correlation information to refine the results of classification to a small number of clusters using the conditional probability of the cross-correlation matrix. These classification schemes are applied to full polarimetric P, L, and C-band SAR images of the Nezer Forest, France, acquired by the NASA/JPL AIRSAR sensor in 1989     

Radar measurements of snow: experiment and analysis

This paper considers two specific types of experiments conducted to improve the authors' understanding of radar backscatter from snow-covered ground surfaces. The first experiment involves radar backscatter measurements at Cand X-band of artificial snow of varying depths. The relatively simple target characteristics, combined with an exhaustive ground truth effort, make the results of this experiment especially amenable to comparison with predictions based on theoretical methods for modeling volume-scattering media. It is shown that both conventional and dense-medium radiative transfer models fail to adequately explain the observed results. A direct polarimetric inversion approach is described by which the characteristics of the snow medium are extracted from the measured data. The second type of experiment examined in this study involves diurnal backscatter measurements that were made contemporaneously with detailed measurements of the snow-wetness depth profiles of the observed scene. These data are used to evaluate the capability of a recently proposed algorithm for snow wetness retrieval from polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurements, which has hithertofore been applied only to data from very complex and extended mountainous terrains     

基于H-α和改进C-均值的全极化SAR图像非监督分类

该文提出一种基于H-α和改进C-均值的全极化SAR图像非监督分类方法.该方法先按H-α对全极化SAR图像进行基于散射机理的分类,再将分类结果作为改进C-均值算法的初始类别划分,从而实现地物分类.迭代次数确定是C-均值动态聚类算法的关键,文中利用图像熵给出了一种新的迭代终止准则.与H-α方法相比,该文方法能在保留分类结果物理散射机理的同时,实现有效的地物分类.NASA/JPL实验室AIRSAR系统获取的L波段旧金山全极化SAR数据的实验结果验证了该文方法的有效性.     

Decorrelation in interferometric radar echoes

A radar interferometric technique for topographic mapping of surfaces, implemented utilizing a single synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system in a nearly repeating orbit, is discussed. The authors characterize the various sources contributing to the echo correlation statistics, and isolate the term which most closely describes surficial change. They then examine the application of this approach to topographic mapping of vegetated surfaces which may be expected to possess varying backscatter over time. It is found that there is decorrelation increasing with time but that digital terrain model generation remains feasible. The authors present such a map of a forested area in Oregon which also includes some nearly unvegetated lava flows. Such a technique could provide a global digital terrain map     

基于Wishart分布和MRF的多视全极化SAR图像分割

提出一种新的多视全极化SAR图像分割方法.将描述多视协方差矩阵的Wishart分布与马尔可夫随机场模型结合起来,利用迭代条件模型法(ICM)求取最大后验概率准则下的分割结果,其中ICM所需的初始分割图由基于Wishart分布的最大似然法获得.NASA/JPL实验室AIRSAR系统多视全极化数据的实验结果表明,与几种常用方法相比,本文方法分割精度更高,分割结果图中孤立像素少,图像连通性好.     

Snow Reflectance from LANDSAT-4 Thematic Mapper

In California 75 percent of the agricultural water supply comes from the melting Sierra Nevada snowpack. Basin-wide spectral albedo measurements from the Landsat-4 Thematic Mapper (TM) could be used to better forecast the timing of the spring runoff, because these data can be combined with solar radiation calculations to estimate the net radiation balance. The TM is better-suited for this prupose than the Multispectral Scanner because of its larger dynamic range. Saturation still occurs in bands 1-4, but is severe only in TM1 (0.45-0.52, ?m). Snow reflectance in TM2 (0.43-0.61 ?m) is typical of the visible wavelength region, where reflectance is almost insensitive to crystal size but sensitive to contamination. TM4 (0.78-0.90 ?m) allows estimation of effective optical grain size and thereby spectral extension throughout the near-infrared. TM5 (1.57-1.78 ?m) can discriminate clouds from snow.     

（英）集成颜色特征和统计特征的极化SAR图像城区分类框架

在传统的利用极化合成孔径雷达(PolSAR)遥感图像分类中,除了近期一个有监督分类的工作,很少涉及颜色特征。与该工作不同,在本文中,针对城区分类,利用颜色特征构造一个新颖的无监督的分类框架。首先,基于最近提出的PolSAR数据的四分量分解模型,计算了常用的颜色空间：YUV,RGB,HSI和CIELab,通过引入颜色熵量化的选择颜色特征,然后,联合纹理特征和扩展的散射功率熵,用自适应的均值漂移算法分割PolSAR图像,最后,根据基于G0分布的距离测度合并聚簇为较为匀质的地物类别。通过L波段AIRSAR数据和C波段Radarsat-2的PolSAR数据验证了提出算法的有效性,分类正确率表明,相比于已有的工作,提出的算法对于城区有较好的区分能力。     

Knowledge-based classification of polarimetric SAR images

In preparation for the flight of the Shuttle Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C) on board the Space Shuttle in the spring of 1994, a level-1 automatic classifier was developed on the basis of polarimetric SAR images acquired by the JPL AirSAR system. The classifier uses L- and C-Band polarimetric SAR measurements of the imaged scene to classify individual pixels into one of four categories: tall vegetation (trees), short vegetation, urban, or bare surface, with the last category encompassing water surfaces, bare soil surfaces, and concrete or asphalt-covered surfaces. The classifier design uses knowledge of the nature of radar backscattering from surfaces and volumes to construct appropriate discriminators in a sequential format. The classifier, which was developed using training areas in a test site in Northern Michigan, was tested against independent test areas in the same test site and in another site imaged three months earlier. Among all cases and all categories, the classification accuracy ranged between 91% and 100%     

The use of ERS-1 SAR data in snow melt monitoring

ERS-1 SAR data, airborne data and in situ snow data were acquired for the Sodankyla test site in northern Finland for the winters of 1991-1992 and 1992-1993. The test area consists of sparsely forested areas (pine, mixed forests, and mires) and open areas (bogs, lakes, clear-cut areas, and urban area). A set of multitemporal ERS-1 SAR images covering the two winters have been analyzed and the results have been compared with in situ surveys and a digital land-use map. The results indicate that even in the presence of forest canopies (1) wet snow can be distinguished from other soil/snow conditions (dry snow and bare ground), and (2) snow melt maps can be derived from SAR images. Snow-melt maps indicate areas fully covered with wet snow, partly melted areas and snow-free areas     

Landsat ETM+ and SAR image fusion based on generalized intensity Modulation

This work presents a novel multisensor image fusion algorithm, which extends panchrmomatic sharpening of multispectral (MS) data through intensity modulation to the integration of MS and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. The method relies on SAR texture, extracted by ratioing the despeckled SAR image to its low-pass approximation. SAR texture is used to modulate the generalized intensity (GI) of the MS image, which is given by a linear transform extending intensity-hue-saturation transform to an arbitrary number of bands. Before modulation, the GI is enhanced by injection of high-pass details extracted from the available panchrmomatic image by means of the "a/spl grave/-trous" wavelet decomposition. The texture-modulated panchrmomatic-sharpened GI replaces the GI calculated from the resampled original MS data. Then, the inverse transform is applied to obtain the fusion product. Experimental results are presented on Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus and European Remote Sensing 2 satellite images of an urban area. The results demonstrate accurate spectral preservation on vegetated regions, bare soil, and also on textured areas (buildings and road network) where SAR texture information enhances the fusion product, which can be usefully applied for both visual analysis and classification purposes.