KNOWLEDGE-BASED CLASSIFICATION OF POLARIMETRIC SAR IMAGES

In preparation for the flight of the Shuttle Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C) on board the Space Shuttle in the spring of 1994, a Level-1 automatic classifier was developed on the basis of polarimetric SAR images acquired by the JPL AirSAR system. The classifier uses L- and C-Band polarimetric SAR measurements of the imaged scene to classify individual pixels into one of four categories: tall vegetation (trees), short vegetation, urban, or bare surface, with the last category encompassing water surfaces, bare soil surfaces, and concrete or asphalt-covered surfaces. The classifier design uses knowledge of the nature of radar backscattering from surfaces and volumes to construct appropriate discriminators in a sequential format. The classifier, which was developed using training areas in a test site in Northern Michigan, was tested against independent test areas in the same test site and in another site imaged three months earlier. Among all cases and all categories, the classification accuracy ranged between 91% and 100%.