Change detection in polarimetric SAR data and the complex Wishart distribution

When working with multi-look fully polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data an appropriate way of representing the backscattered signal consists of the so-called covariance matrix. For each pixel this is a 3/spl times/3 Hermitian, positive definite matrix which follows a complex Wishart distribution. Based on this distribution a test statistic for equality of two such matrices and an associated asymptotic probability for obtaining a smaller value of the test statistic are given and applied to change detection in polarimetric SAR data. In a case study EMISAR L-band data from 17 April 1998 and 20 May 1998 covering agricultural fields near Foulum, Denmark are used. The derived test statistic can be applied as a line or edge detector in fully polarimetric SAR data also.