Polarimetric SAR observation by ALOS

The Japanese microwave remote sensing satellite ALOS/PALSAR was launched successfully in January 2006. We are carrying out polarimetric calibration of the PALSAR sensor, which has the full-polarimetric function of L-band SAR. We set corner reflectors in Ulaanbaatar in May and August 2006, and the acquired data was used to confirm the polarimetric calibration coefficients, which will be used for the data sets delivered from October 2006. In addition, the acquired polarimetric SAR data will provide new possibility in remote sensing. Since this is the world first satellite borne full-polarimetric SAR system, we cannot show many examples in this moment, but from airborne SAR data, which we have studied, we show some examples of polarimetric SAR, which include tree type classification, and estimation of the orientation angle of scattering targets.