Four-Component Decomposition of Polarimetric SAR Images With Deorientation

Abstract

A modified Yamaguchi decomposition with deorientation is proposed for analyzing multilook polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) data. Deorientation is first applied to a coherence matrix; then, the coherence matrix is decomposed into four components by the Yamaguchi decomposition. A special kind of target is found for which the original Yamaguchi decomposition output is not appropriate. This problem is solved by applying deorientation prior to the Yamaguchi decomposition. Moreover, the deorientation procedure enhances double-bounce scattering from urban areas in the decomposition output. Comparisons of the Yamaguchi decompositions with and without deorientation are shown for PolSAR data from both airborne and spaceborne systems.