Are Pixel Intensities Proportional To Radar Cross Section In SAR Images?

Döring, Björn J. und Schwerdt, Marco (2012) Are Pixel Intensities Proportional To Radar Cross Section In SAR Images? In: International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), Seiten 1-3. IEEE. IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2012-07-23 - 2012-07-27, Munich, Germany. doi: 10.1109/igarss.2012.6350596.

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Kurzfassung

Radar cross section has long been the measurement quantity of choice to describe the radar reflectivity of point targets in calibrated synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Derived quantities like the backscatter coefficient are equally in wide-spread use to radiometrically describe, in scientific applications often even more relevant, distributed targets. This paper now raises the question if radar cross section (RCS) really is the best choice to link pixel intensities or digital numbers to a physical unit. In fact, it is shown that RCS actually is not a good choice out of two major reasons, both of which result from the RCS being frequency dependent. The authors propose to distinguish the radar cross section, a body property, from the actual radiometric measurement quantity in SAR images by introducing the dedicated term equivalent RCS. Additionally, the implications for measurements and radiometric calibration are described.

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