A new method based on X-Bragg model for target characterization and its application to forest/nonforest discrimination

Polarization ratio and co-polarized phase information are very important for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image interpretation, especially in the area where a single scattering mechanism is dominant. In this study, a new method including both the parameters for scattering characterization is proposed based on the extended Bragg scattering (X-Bragg) model. The theoretical analysis, which is based on the first-order Bragg scattering and the dihedral scattering models, is consistent with the demonstration of real polarimetric SAR data. The proposed method is evaluated on the entropy/alpha plane, showing its promise for distinguishing between different target scatterings. In experiment, L-band ALOS/PALSAR fully polarimetric data over Tasmania, Australia are used for illustrating the effectiveness of this method for forest/nonforest discrimination. Results from Cloude-Pottier´s decomposition theorem are also given for comparison.