First 3-D reconstructions of target hidden beneath foliage by means of polarimetric SAR tomography

Abstract

SAR tomography (SARTom) is an imaging technique that allows multiple phase center separation in the vertical direction, leading to a 3-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the imaged scene. Retrieval of volume structure information (e.g. for forest classification) and the solution of the layover problem are two of the most promising applications. In this paper, SAR tomography, in combination with polarimetry (PolSARTom), is exploited to image and to extract characteristic features (e.g. shape, height) of targets hidden beneath foliage. This analysis is applied to L-band airborne data acquired by the E-SAR system of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) during a tomographic campaign that took place in September 2006 on the test site of Dornstetten (Germany).