Calibration and validation of polarimetric ALOS2

PALSAR2 distortion matrix is measured using corner reflectors (CR) deployed in the Amazonian forest. The Amazonian forest near the geomagnetic equator provides ideal sites for the assessment of PALSAR antenna parameters, at free Faraday rotation. The extended Freeman-Van Zyl calibration method [1] introduced and validated for ALOS-PALSAR calibration is used for the assessment of PALSAR-2 calibration parameters. Six data sets collected over the Amazonian forest (with CRs) are used to assess PALSAR-2 distortion matrix for five beams (FP3 to FP7) with incidence angle varying from 25° to 40°. It is shown that PALSAR2 antenna is highly isolated with very low cross-talk (lower than -40 dB).