Interpretation of theoretical scattering mechanisms extracted from polarimetric target decomposition algorithms for sea ice applications

Outputs from coherent and incoherent decomposition methods are compared over a sea ice environment selected so that surface scattering be the dominant mechanism all over the scene. Our field observations revealed two types of ice: one formed at the onset of the winter season and the other formed later at spring in leads. Pressure ridges and rubble fields were also present on the old ice surfaces. Both methods were able to draw a satisfying map of the two ice types and localize pressure ridges. However the application of a Wishart classifier gives an improved resolution over the Pauli RGB. Two main differences emerge from our results. The intensity fluctuations of the return are better revealed on the Pauli RGB with forward scattering showing as dark areas. A parallel consequence is that areas where a strong forward scattering occurred were wrongly classified as dominated by a volume scattering mechanism. The incoherent method successfully classified all surfaces as dominated by a surface scattering mechanism.