Comparison of ship detection performance based on the degree of polarization in hybrid/compact and linear dual-pol SAR imagery

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a powerful tool strongly employed in maritime monitoring and surveillance. Among different polarimetric SAR modes, dual-pol SAR data are widely used for monitoring large ocean and coastal areas. The degree of polarization (DoP) is a fundamental quantity characterizing a partially polarized electromagnetic field. The performance of the DoP is studied for ship detection under different polarizations in hybrid/compact and linear dual-pol SAR imagery. Experiments are performed on C-band polarimetric data acquired by RADARSAT-2 over San Francisco Bay and the Strait of Gibraltar.