Pol-SAR Classification Based on Generalized Polar Decomposition of Mueller Matrix

Abstract

In this letter, we investigate an application of a generalized polar decomposition of the Mueller matrix for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (Pol-SAR) classification. Six roll-invariant parameters (diattenuation, retardance, polarization power, depolarization anisotropy, depolarization power, and transmittance) are selected as features for the classification of scattering types. Experimental results using the AIRSAR data over Flevoland show that, for most field types, the D-R-A_Δ- Δ-m₀₀ set provides the highest classification accuracy, followed by the D-R-P_Δ-Δ-m₀₀ set which also provides better accuracy than the widely used H -α-(δ-γ)-A-span set. The proposed method would be valuable for Pol-SAR interpretation.