Characterization of symmetric scattering using polarimetric SARs

Cameron´s coherent target decomposition (CTD) and classification are discussed in the context of SAR, and the limitations of Cameron´s classification are examined. It is shown that these methods may lead to a coarse and misleading scattering segmentation because of the large radiometric dispersion tolerated in each of the elemental scatterer classes, as well as the implicit assumption on the coherence nature of target scattering. A new method, named the symmetric scattering characterization method (SSCM), is introduced to better exploit the information provided by the largest target symmetric scattering component, under coherent conditions. The SSCM, which expressed the symmetric scattering in term of the Poincare sphere angles, permits a better characterization of target symmetric scattering and the generation of coherent scattering segmentation of much higher resolution, in comparison with Cameron´s segmentation.