Ship Detection Method Based on Scattering Contribution for PolSAR Image

Due to the differentiation of polarimetric scattering mechanisms between ships and sea surface, designing the ship detection method in polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) is a potential promising technique and has been paid extensive attention. The complexity of sea clutter and weak scattering of small ships result in a great challenge for high-precision ship detection. In this letter, we investigate the scattering mechanisms of ships to improve the detection performance and propose a novel ship detection method based on the principal contribution of scattering mechanisms. First, the seven-component model-based decomposition (SCMD) is used to analyze the scattering mechanisms of ships. Second, the primary scattering contribution and local contrast (SCLC) mechanism are used to enhance ships, especially small ships. Finally, the threshold segmentation is used to realize the extraction of ships. Experimental results by real PolSAR data not only verify the rationality and effectiveness of the constructed detection metric but also show the clear superiority of the proposed detection method, which can encourage further application of polarimetric scattering mechanisms in ship detection.