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A study on sea oil slick observation by means of L-band polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data is accomplished. It is based on different sea surface scattering mechanism expected with and without surface slicks. Polarimetric measurements are processed by means of a simple and very effective filtering technique which is electromagnetically based on the Mueller scattering matrix. Moreover, some polarimetric features, evaluated on both slick-free and slick-covered sea surfaces, are analyzed for confirming the filter output. Experiments are accomplished on the polarimetric SAR data acquired by the Phased Array-type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) sensor, mounted on board of the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS), and are relevant to oil slick, due to a tank accident, and look-alikes. Results demonstrate for the first time that L-band polarimetric SAR measurements are useful for oil slick observation purposes and witness the capability of the ALOS PALSAR data for such application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite has, since its launch, been acquiring an extensive data set of images over two forest test sites in Sweden. The sites of Remningstorp (Lat. 58°30′ N, Long. 13°40′ E) in the south and Krycklan (Lat. 64°14′ N, Long. 19°50′ E) in the north of Sweden are characterized by hemiboreal and boreal forests, respectively. In this paper, we have investigated the signatures of standwise backscatter measurements from forests with different growth stages in relation to polarization, environmental conditions, image viewing geometry, and spatial resolution. The HV backscatter presented stronger sensitivity to the forest growth stage than the HH and VV backscatter. Under unfrozen conditions, the dynamic range of fine-beam data acquired at 34.3° was 8-9 dB for the HV polarization and 6-7 dB for the HH polarization. At 21.5°, in the polarimetric mode, the dynamic range was 6, 7, and 9 dB at VV, HH, and HV polarizations, respectively. Regardless of the specific polarization, the backscatter was temporally consistent under unfrozen conditions, with a small increase of backscatter in regrowing young forest for wet conditions. Under thawing and frozen conditions, repeated measurements were available only for the HH backscatter at 34.3°. For thawing conditions, the backscatter level was similar to the unfrozen conditions even though the signatures differed depending on temperature dynamics, snow-cover properties, and precipitation. Under frozen conditions, the signatures varied depending on temperature. For images acquired when the temperature was well below the freezing point, the backscatter was low, and the dynamic range was small (2-4 dB); nonetheless, the measurements were consistent. Images acquired when temperature was close to the freezing point pre- sented a behavior similar to unfrozen conditions. The sensitivity of the backscatter to the image viewing geometry for different growth stages was studied for data acquired under dry unfrozen conditions. The backscatter difference increased for increasing look angle because of the increase in volume scattering and the decrease of ground-surface backscatter. The largest difference was observed at 41.5° with 2.5-4.dB difference for the HH and 4-5-dB difference for the HV case. Loss of spatial resolution (20-50 m) lid not have any effect on the backscatter signatures in Krycklan, vhereas in Remningstorp, the smallest stands were affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a quantitative comparison of L- and C-band airborne synthetic aperture radar imagery acquired at like- and cross-polarizations over deformed sea ice under winter conditions. The parameters characterizing the deformation state of the ice are determined at both radar bands and at different polarizations. The separation of deformed and level ice is based on a target detection technique. The threshold is set such that image pixels with intensities equal to or larger than the highest 2% of the level-ice intensity distribution are classified as deformed ice, independent of the radar configuration and ice conditions. Optical imagery of sufficient quality for comparison is available only in a very few cases. To characterize the deformation state, the areal fraction of deformation features and the average distance between these features are evaluated. The values obtained for both parameters are very sensitive to the radar frequency. Aeral fractions are larger, and average distances are smaller at L-band than at C-band because of the much higher intensity contrast between the deformed and level ice at L-band. The differences between polarizations at one radar band are smaller but not always negligible. In comparison to optical images, it was observed that deformed-ice areas can be distinguished from level ice over their whole length and extension at L-band, whereas at C-band, often, only prominent parts are visible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, bistatic synthetic aperture radar (BiSAR) has attracted the attention of many radar researchers. It is well known that the slant range history of BiSAR is the sum of two square-rooted terms, which correspond to the transmitting and receiving slant ranges, respectively. For a point target in the SAR scene, it is quite difficult, if not impossible, to obtain an analytic formula to describe the target echo data in the 2-D frequency domain without any approximation by using the conventional stationary phase method, which makes it very difficult to develop fast-focusing algorithms for BiSAR. In this paper, based on the concept of an instantaneous Doppler wavenumber and by defining a new variable called half quasi-bistatic angle, an analytic formula of the point target response in the spectral domain is developed for BiSAR with parallel trajectory (referred to as parallel BiSAR for simplicity). Relying on a first-order Taylor expansion of the above formula with respect to the parameter called the sum of closest distances on the swath center, a bistatic range migration algorithm is proposed for any azimuth-shift-invariant BiSAR data processing. Simulation results have confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed novel approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]