Polarimetric Parameters Extraction to Understand the Scattering Behavior of NASA/JPL AIRSAR Data

When a SAR system operates in a full-polarimetic mode, the amount of the information one can extract is so complex that the effective presentation of the information is important. However, the information acquired from the polarimetric SAR data is often difficult to interpret by itself, because it is consisted of both the amplitude information and the phase information. Polarimetric parameters are the good way of representing the polarimetric SAR information in a quantitative manner. Also they can characterize the scattering behavior of the ground scatterer. In this research, extraction of polarimetric parameters, evaluation and interpretation of the scattering behavior of the ground with respect to polarimetric SAR signal are carried out. Using the NASA/JPL AIRSAR data, we estimated the polarimetric parameters and compared them in terms of the ground features. In general, extracted parameters well represent the characteristics of the different features on the ground.