A Model-Based Analysis of Surface Scattering Effects in Polarimetric SAR Interferometry

Abstract

In this paper we present a stochastic coherent polarimetric scattering model which can be used for interferometric simulation. The objective of this work is to determine the relationship between surface parameters, as surface roughness and dielectric properties, and interferometric observables. We investigate their influences on the coherence of interferograms formed by using different polarizations. The results are compared with the estimates of conventional polarimetric analysis. This allows us to outline possibilities and limitations for the extraction of surface parameters from real data combining interferometric and polarimetric methods.