Applications of Continuous Wavelet Transform to Polarimetry and Interferometry

Usual imaging process makes the assumption that the reflectors are isotropic (i.e they behave the same way regardless of the angle from which they are viewed) and white (they have the same properties within the emitted frequency bandwidth). New imaging capacities make these assumptions obsolete and some degradation of the image quality occurs when performing the standard imaging process. Multidimensional continuous wavelet transform for radar imaging was initially developed to highlight these effects. The wavelet tool allows to extend the notion of radar image to the hyperimage concept : a function of position (x,y), of the emitted frequency and of the squint angle of the target. The goal of this paper is to present a method based on the wavelet transform, and to widen it for polarimetry and interferometry fields. Wavelet tool is first used for polarimetric parameters in order to improve target identification. Then it is used for coherence optimization in interferometry. The coherence optimization by wavelets is compared with the polarimetric interferometry one. It gives better results on the coherence level, and on the quality of the reconstructed target height thanks the interferometric angle. It is finally possible to combine both methods.