Polarimetric contrast optimization

It is often desirable to select radar antenna polarizations that maximize the contrast in received powers from two classes of scatterers. A terrain-mapping radar may use polarization to maximize the contrast between forested areas and farmland. For another radar, polarizations may be chosen to optimize an aircraft target return relative to clutter. Polarizations chosen for either purpose may give a target return that is small compared to external noise or internal receiver noise, and it may therefore be more appropriate to choose polarizations that maximize signal-to-noise ratio. An outline of methods for choosing polarizations in all of these cases is presented