Investigation on the applications of decorrelation analysis in Polarimetric SAR Interferometry

Interferometric coherence is a key quantity in Polarimetric SAR Interferometry (Pol-InSAR), but it is usually decreased (named decorrelation) by the decorrelation sources, such as polarization type, volume scatterers, instrument settings and processing errors. The analysis of decorrelation has been used to system performance assessment and vegetation parameter estimation. This paper presents two other applications of the decorrelation analysis. One is the derivation of Pol-InSAR system and processing requirements. It is based on quantitative expressions of the decorrelation as a function of system and processing parameters. The other is compensation of the decorrelation that cannot be eliminated by optimizing system and processing parameters. It is implemented by using dual-baseline Pol-InSAR data. The Pol-InSAR requirement on noise equivalent backscattering coefficient and the compensation of temporal decorrelation are shown to demonstrate and validate these two applications respectively.