Application of aspect angle normalized polsar images for urban building detection

Variation in the building aspect angle, defined as the angle between the flight direction of a satellite (azimuth direction) and the vertical wall of a building, is a significant cause of accuracy reduction in building detection and terrain classification from Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture POLSAR (POLSAR) images. However, the existing building detection methods usually are effective for the buildings with a limited aspect angle range. Considering the relationship between the aspect angle of the building and the orientation angle shift, an aspect angle normalization method is introduced to remove the disadvantageous influences caused by the aspect angle. From a comparison between the double-bounce building detection results of the original and aspect angle normalized RadarSat-2 data acquired in Beijing, China, buildings with any aspect angle can be detected effectively from aspect angle normalized data.