Imaging radar polarimetry

Abstract

Conventional imaging radars operating with a single, fixed-polarization antenna are being supplanted by the next generation instrument capable of measuring the polarization of the scattered wave for any and all transmit polarizations. Already a wide variety of natural terrains have been mapped using these new instruments. The observed scattering characteristics vary as a function of polarization state and also of frequency. Nature appears to be described by what is now a bewildering variety of polarization signatures. -from Authors