Scatterer characterisation using polarimetric SAR tomography

This paper presents the first step to characterise scatterers using polarimetric SAR tomography (POLTOMSAR). It is a logical extension of the tomographic data processing, which consists to use the vectorial properties of electromagnetic waves. An introduction to the estimation of the polarisation state of retrieved target is proposed. It is based on a modified signal model adapted to the MUSIC algorithm. This makes it possible to determinate the physical nature of detected object, which is not possible using classical approach, unless having the ground-truth of the scene under study. The experimental results are shown using a multibaseline data set acquired in L-hand by DLR's experimental SAR (E-SAR) on a test site near Oberpfaffenhofen/Germany.