Comprehensive contrast comparison of laver cultivation area extraction using parameters derived from polarimetric synthetic aperture radar data

Image contrast between extracted laver cultivation area and background water was extensively compared using various parameters that can be calculated by dual- and quad-polarization (fully polarimetric) synthetic aperture radar data. Each parameter derived from Pauli decomposition, eigenvalue analysis, coherence analysis, and four-component scattering power decomposition (4-CSPD) has distinctive characteristics and react to different backscatterers differently. Contrast comparison was made using these parameters using the L-band quad-polarization data acquired by phased-array L-band synthetic aperture radar (PALSAR) on board advanced land observing satellite (ALOS) and the X-band dual-polarization data acquired by TerraSAR-X, and experimental results showed that the contrast can be improved using multi-polarization data than using single-polarization data. It has also been found that entropy performs better among dual-polarization methods, and the surface scattering component calculated from 4-CSPD exhibits higher contrast than any other parameters from quad-polarization data. (C) 2013 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)