Multi-polarization Synthetic Aperture Radar Systems And Polarization Information Processing

At present the polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system is animportant aspect of the microwave imaging research and application, which canefficienily enhance the ability to acquire the information of targets, and provide aneffective approach to further analyze, identify and detect targets. Some problems ofthe polarimetric SAR were studied and explored in an all-round and systematicalway, which include the basic theories, system designs, operation modes, andpolarimetric information processing. In addition, some new concepts and analysismethods were presented.Firstly, the polarimetric characteristics and description of electromagnetic waveswere introduced, the basic theories of the polarimetric SAR measurements werestudied and the basic models of microwave polarimetric scattering were analyzed indetail. Besides, some confusing concepts were clarified. All above laid a foundationfor the research of polarimetric SAR system and polarimetric informationprocessing.In the dissertation, the spacebrne polarimetric SAR system and its operationmodes were studied, and several actual problems about the design of which weresystematically analyzed. Based on the analysis of the existing Polarization TimeDivision (PTD) and Polarization Frequency Division (PFD) operation modes,Polarization Code Division (PCD) mode were developed. Besides, the PTD andPFD modes were improved. The analysis and comparison have proved them to beeffective new modes. The new operation modes effectively improved the technicalindex, expanded the application field of spaceborne polarimetric SAR system, andprovided a reference for the development of spaceborne polarimetric SAR system inour country.The polarimetric SAR information processing was comprehensively andsystematically researched in the dissertation, which includes the understanding ofpolarimetric SAR images, correlation analysis ofpolarimetric SAR images, optimalpolarization degree analysis of polarimetric SAR images, statistical and spatialproperties of the single-look and multi-look polarimetric SAR images, contrastenhancement of polarimetric SAR images, optimal speckle reduction in polarimetricSAR images, and polarimetric classification. Several new methods of analysis andcomputation are provided and some polarimetric images are processed.Some latest theories and technologies of polarimetric SAR system wereexplored. A new concept aboni lltilizing the single-frequency or multi-frequencypolarimetric SAR system to detect and image moving targets was presented, and itsaPpropriate design plan was offered. All these provide us an effective means ingiving full play of resource dominance of the multi-frequency polarimetric SARsystem. As a new technique, the concept of polarimetric SAR iflterferometYy wasintroduced in the end of the dissertation.