Random Similarity Between Two Mixed Scatterers

Scattering similarity was first proposed by Yang et al. to measure the similarity between two single scatterers. It was extended by Chen et al. to measure the similarity between a mixed scatterer and a single scatterer. This letter develops a random similarity parameter to further measure the similarity between two mixed scatterers. The parameter not only covers Yang´s and Chen´s similarities by providing a general scattering similarity measurement, but also is useful for scattering randomness description by enabling a fast alternative and a competent complementary to the entropy parameter. A novel model-based characterization scheme of mixed scatterer is then proposed by parallel combining the random similarities between the mixed scatterer and three canonical mixed volume scatterers. By further fusing with the SPAN, the scheme can characterize both the texture and the scattering information regarding a target. Comparative experiment with Chen´s approach on L-band ESAR Oberpfaffenhofen data demonstrates its excellent discrimination of radar targets.