Analysis of Simulated Polarimetric SAR Images Generated by a Multilayer Electromagnetic Scattering Model

The evaluation of a polarimetric SAR image, which is generated by means of computation of far electric field scattered by multilayer structure, is carried out. The image analysis consists on the study of statistical properties of amplitude data and the investigation of the information gathered by alpha and szlig angles derived from the standard Cloude-Pottier's target decomposition and the orientation angle induced by azimuthal terrain slope. The discriminatory power capability of these three angle features is assessed through a simple threshold polarimetric classification procedure. The results show that the simulation process is working properly and that the SAR return is extremely sensitive to scatter local orientation.