Polarimetric Interferomtry

SAR polarimetry makes use of the polarization dependent scattering response of each pixel within the imaged area. The polarimetric response is highly sensitive to the scattering mechanism of a pixel. SAR interferometry is sensitive to the location of a pixel and its scattering geometry. The location of a pixel can be measured by the phase difference between two coherent SAR images using SAR interferometry. The interferometric correlation coefficient depends on the distribution of scattering objects. Even though the correlation coefficient does not uniquely depend on the scattering geometry, an empirical approach may exist to produce useful physical information from the interferometric correlation coefficient. Polarimetric interferometry combines both SAR polarimetry and SAR interferometry. The main purpose of using polarimetric interferometry is to extract scattering medium information that may be difficult to obtain from scalar interferometry. This information can also be used to enhance the interferometric SAR capability. Even though the formulation and initial demonstrations appear to be very promising, potential applications of polarimetric interferometry can only be verified by comparing polarimetric interferometry signatures with ground truth data. In order to accomplish this, the NASA/JPL TOPSAR system was modified to collect polarimetric interferometry data at C-band. In this talk, we discuss important issues related to polarimetric interferometry by using NASA/JPL polarimetric interferometry data.