Effects on the double bounce detection in urban areas based on SAR polarimetric characteristics

Abstract

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) polarimetric datasets are widely used in the detection and classification of urban areas. Most methods used today are based on the decomposition of fully polarimetric SAR data, which allows for the extraction of physical information about the nature of the medium and the application of proper classification methods. According to the theory, the main and predominant backscattering mechanism for buildings is double bounce. However, when analyzing urban environments, the observed predominant backscatter may differ from theory depending on many aspects. In this paper, we analyze fully polarimetric ALOS PALSAR data for various cities located on different continents, proving that the theory does not hold for most cases. There are many factors that have an impact on the detected backscatter mechanism, and the theoretical principle of predominant double bounce in urban areas can be met only under specific conditions. These factors are, among others, the orientation of the buildings, the dimensions of the streets, the type of construction (i.e., numerous planes on the roof), etc. This paper also mentions the canonical example of San Francisco, widely analyzed in the literature, as a case showing the impact of building deorientation on double bounce scattering. This area of interest is also discussed in terms of the impact of SAR data resolution on the detection of specific backscatter mechanisms. The findings of this work are very useful for increasing the awareness of the utilization of classification approaches where only pixels with double bounce backscatter mechanisms are classified as urban areas. Moreover, the article lists factors that should be taken into consideration when performing urban area detection based only on polarimetric data and standard algorithms, such as street and building orientation, building heights, and structures.