SAR polarimetry: applications and understanding

Polarimetry is making a significant impact on developments in civil applications of imaging microwave radar, and on the specification of requirements for future satellite sensors. It is improving our ability to perform target classification and, supported by developments of effective radar backscatter models, is forming a basis for the retrieval of quantitative information from images of land surfaces. Great strides have been made in the development of applications of existing satellite-borne synthetic-aperture radars, despite their comparative simplicity. SARs from Europe (ERS-1 & 2) and Japan (JERS-1) are demonstrating applications of commercial and environmental importance. Their single-channel radar have been shown to have immense potential for oceanography and cryosphere monitoring, and the drive towards operationality will continue with Canada´s new Radarsat. Imaging of land has been rather more problematical, especially at the comparatively short radar wavelengths (C-band) of ERS and Radarsat. Even so, the stable ERS sensors and their repeatable orbits permit the exploitation of multitemporal image sequences to monitor and interpret change in the landscape. Limited agricultural mapping with C-band SAR has become a reality by exploiting the changing radar backscatter from a crop as it grows, matures and is harvested