Ship Identification Using Signatures from Cross-Polarized SAR Images

Ship identification using cross-polarized SAR images is addressed in this correspondence. Cross-polarized images from SAR sensors give information about the capability of the background scatterers to change the polarization of the incidence EM radiation. The amount of this change is used as a measure for characterizing the scattering properties of each pixel on the ship. The ship signature (feature) is formed considering the whole vessel as a distributed target. The Total Degree of Rotation (TDR) of the electromagnetic (EM) radiation constitutes the proposed feature and is measured over all vessel pixels. Pseudo-coloring is employed for visualization purposes. The data used are from Advance-SAR sensor of ENVISAT satellite with VV and VII polarization.