Hybrid-Pol Based Three-Component Scattering Model for Analysis of RISAT Data

What is it about?

In this paper, we present an unsupervised model-based decomposition technique for the analysis of hybrid-pol datasets. The proposed approach develops a hybrid-pol version of the full-pol three-component scattering model by deriving all decomposition parameters in terms of the hybrid-pol Stokes parameters. By using these decomposition parameters, the contribution of three basic scattering mechanisms, namely surface-scattering from Bragg surface region, dihedral-scattering from the urban region, and volume-scattering from the forest region, are estimated. The decomposition parameters take surface dielectric properties under consideration that makes the proposed method suitable to provide a more realistic representation of the Earth’s surface. To estimate the efficacy of the proposed technique, the hybrid-pol data acquired over Mumbai city using ISRO’s RISAT-1 satellite is used. For comparative analysis, the proposed technique is compared with conventional decomposition techniques, such as m−δ, m−α, and modified m−χ.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

This method is the first of its kind for hybrid-pol SAR which utilizes surface dielectric-variation for the estimation of three basic scattering mechanisms, namely surface-scattering from Bragg surface region, dihedral-scattering from the urban region, and volume-scattering from the forest region. As a result, a more realistic representation of the Earth’s surface has been obtained.