Conservative polarimetric scatterers and their role in incorrect extensions of the Cameron decomposition

The properties of conservative symmetric polarimetric scatterer scattering matrices are examined. It is shown that the unambiguous rotation angle for "conservative" symmetric polarimetric scatterers is the interval (-pi/4, +pi/4] as compared with (-pi/2, +pi/2] for nonconservative symmetric scatterers. Errors relating to the Cameron decomposition, which are recently introduced into the literature, are discussed. It is demonstrated that these errors arise from a faulty symmetric scatterer scattering matrix distance measure. This, in turn, leads to an improper mapping of the symmetric scatterer unit disk to a hemisphere. The correct mapping of the symmetric scatterer unit disk to the symmetric scatterer unit sphere is described.