Visualization of the polarimetric information: comparison between partial versus full polarimetry architectures

The purpose of this work is in keeping with the general pattern of the comparison between full polarimetry (fp) versus partial polarimetry (pp) architectures performances. A particular emphasis is given to the visualization aspect. The authors investigate the specific pp case for which the polarimetric acquisition is restricted to a coherent co-polarized information (the HV measurement is removed). Based on the Cloude & Pottier decomposition, the fp information content is primarily assessed by building up a synoptic representation, aiming at overlaying the polarimetric analysis output on a `background´ intensity image, only when this one is expected to hold an additional information. This synoptic representation is shown to facilitate the image interpretation, especially regarding the target detection and analysis aspect. The same type of representation is subsequently adapted to the pp architecture, which permits to observe an overall good information preservation