The Polarimetric L-Band Imaging Synthetic Aperture Radar (PLIS): Description, Calibration, and Cross-Validation

Abstract

The polarimetric L-band imaging synthetic aperture radar (PLIS) is a high spatial resolution (better than 6 m) airborne synthetic aperture radar system that has been dedicated to scientific research into civilian applications since 2010. The weight of PLIS is ~38 kg, allowing it to be installed aboard small low-cost aircraft, with two antennas used to measure the full backscatter matrix for a swath between 15° and 50° on each side of the flight direction. Calibration based on a total of 96 calibration points and a homogeneous forest during the two recent soil moisture active passive experiments (SMAPEx-4 and 5) showed an overall radiometric accuracy of 0.58 dB (root-mean-square error) over trihedral passive radar calibrators. Independent evaluation based on polarimetric active radar calibrators showed an amplitude imbalance of 0.17 dB with a standard deviation of 0.15 dB and a phase imbalance of 3.87° with a standard deviation of 2.86°. Two calibrated phased-array L-Band synthetic aperture radar-2 (PALSAR-2) images with different observation modes (ScanSAR and Stripmap) were compared with the calibrated PLIS images. The agreement between PALSAR-2 Stripmap and PLIS had a root mean square difference of 1.27 dB and a correlation coefficient of 0.87. Further comparisons over different landcover types confirmed that homogeneous forest and grassland areas constitute optimal targets for cross-validation and/or calibration.