Scattering characteristics of X-, C- and L-band PolSAR data examined for the tundra environment of the Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, Canada

In this study, polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data at X-, C- and L-Bands, acquired by the satellites: TerraSAR-X (2011), Radarsat-2 (2011), ALOS (2010) and ALOS-2 (2016), were used to characterize the tundra land cover of a test site located close to the town of Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, Can...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied Sciences
Main Authors: Ullmann, T. (Tobias), Banks, S.N. (Sarah N.), Schmitt, A. (Andreas), Jagdhuber, T. (Thomas)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2017
Subjects:
ALOS
ALOS-2
Arctic
Decomposition
Dual polarimetry
PolSAR
Quad polarimetry
Radarsat-2
TerraSAR-X
Tundra
Canada
Tuktoyaktuk
Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula
Online Access:https://ir.library.carleton.ca/pub/14226
https://doi.org/10.3390/app7060595
Description
Summary:In this study, polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data at X-, C- and L-Bands, acquired by the satellites: TerraSAR-X (2011), Radarsat-2 (2011), ALOS (2010) and ALOS-2 (2016), were used to characterize the tundra land cover of a test site located close to the town of Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, Canada. Using available in situ ground data collected in 2010 and 2012, we investigate PolSAR scattering characteristics of common tundra land cover classes at X-, C- and L-Bands. Several decomposition features of quad-, co-, and cross-polarized data were compared, the correlation between them was investigated, and the class separability offered by their different feature spaces was analyzed. Certain PolSAR features at each wavelength were sensitive to the land cover and exhibited distinct scattering characteristics. Use of shorter wavelength imagery (X and C) was beneficial for the characterization of wetland and tundra vegetation, while L-Band data highlighted differences of the bare ground classes b

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