Microwave backscatter of ship signatures on SAR imagery

Speckle characteristics was analyzed by computing the ENL (Equivalent Number of Looks) for sub images of 30 by 30 pixels from four RADARSAT-2 dual polarization products, two single look complex (SLC) products acquired in wide swath single beam mode with dual polarization of HH+HV and two ScanSAR Wide (SCW) products acquired in ScanSAR Wide beam mode with dual polarization of HH+HV, which lie in the sea area around Iberian Peninsula. The speckle analysis indicates that ENL value combined with the intensity value of the SAR image should be a feasible short cut to find ship signatures out of SAR image. Based on the ENL analysis of speckle characteristics, a data set for ship signature has been derived, from which the ship signature was measured by polarimetric synthesis since the polarimetric SAR signature is an effective way of utilizing the amplitude and phase information to characterize the polarization properties of microwave backscatter. Driven by the need for a realistic microwave backscatter of ship signature model, the detailed behavior of a single ship in different polarizations and different incidence angles will be investigated by the Ray-Optical method which was developed by Burkholder et al. The purpose of this paper is to pave the way for a further improved scatter matrix model.