Single point and spatial statistics of polarimetric SAR imagery

A prerequisite for the design of any target detection scheme is an understanding of the surrounding clutter environment. This paper aims firstly to investigate the extent to which Gaussian and K distribution models can be used to represent genuine polarimetric SAR clutter and secondly to investigate the spatial statistics of such clutter. To this end data analysis has been performed on imagery obtained using a C-band airborne polarimetric SAR system operated by the Defence Research Agency (DRA) of the U.K. In particular, the behaviour of the single point and spatial statistics between polarimetric channels has been investigated. Both an uncorrelated Gaussian model and a correlated K distribution model have been found to be required to fit the different clutter types encountered. However no inter-channel variation in single point or spatial statistics has been detected.