Partially correlated polarimetric K-distribution for multi-look polarimetric SAR images

A partially correlated polarimetric K-distribution model is presented to characterize statistical properties of multi-look polarimetric SAR data acquired over building-and-road-densely-distributed urban areas. The model is a generalization to the usual polarimetric K-distribution one and is formulated in terms of the matrix product model in which different texture variables are assigned to different polarization channels. The joint distribution of these texture variables are assumed to be: partially correlated Gamma Testing of the generalized K-distribution model was conducted using NASA/JPL polarimetric SAR data of a building-and-road-densely-distributed urban area, showing that the generalized K-model is more precise than the usual K-model in characterizing statistical properties of complex urban polarimetric SAR backscattering.