Polarization plane rotation effects on SAR polarimetric attributes

The polarization plane rotation effects on SAR polarimetric attributes are analyzed. This analysis is carried out by simulating a polarimetric SAR image containing four regions with different electric characteristic. The simulation process is based on an electromagnetic scattering model. Employing a rotation model is generated a image set having 361 images, where each image has it polarization plane rotated by a different angle. From all images of the set are computed the covariance matrix and six polarimetric attributes of each image region and compared with their correspondent parameter in the image without rotation. From this evaluation it could be seen that the rotation angle influences differently all polarimetric attributes. The effects of rotation angle can lead to a misunderstanding of the target scattering mechanism.