10:00 PolSAR-AP: Exploitation of Fully Polarimetric Data for Application Demonstration - Final Results
Hajnsek, Irena (1,7); Desnos, Yves-Louis (2); Pardini, Matteo (1); Papathanassiou, Kostas (1); Ballester Berman, Josep David (3); Cloude, Shane (4); Jagdhuber, Thomas (1); Coline-Koeniguer, Elise (5); Lopez Martinez, Carlos (6); Lopez Sanchez, Juan Manuel (3); Marino, Armando (7); Migliaccio, Maurizio (8); Nunziata, Ferdinando (8); Parrella, Giuseppe (1); Pottier, Eric (9); Trouve, Nicolas (5) 1: German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany; 2: ESA-ESRIN; 3: University of Alicante; 4: AELc; 5: ONERA; 6: UPC; 7: ETH Zürich; 8: University of Naples "Parthenope"; 9: University of Rennes-1
Show abstract
In the last decade, a number of SAR satellites operating with polarimetric capability at different frequencies have been launched. The Japanese ALOS/PalSAR operating at L-band, the Canadian Radarsat-2 operating at C-band and the German TerraSAR-X operating at X-band made the access to individual polarimetric data sets rather easy. As a consequence, the wider distribution of polarimetric data sets across the remote sensing community boosted activity and development in polarimetric SAR applications, also in the light of future missions (e.g. ALOS-2) and mission proposals under study (e.g. Tandem-L). This is manifested in the increased number of scientific publications related to SAR polarimetry in the last years and in the increased number of topics and contributions presented in ESA’s bi-annual POLinSAR workshops. In this framework, the PolSAR-Ap project, supported by the European Space Agency and coordinated by the German Aerospace Center, is aimed at evaluating and demonstrating the importance and the unique benefits of quad-polarimetric SAR data for a wide range of remote sensing applications. In order to cover the whole range of remote sensing applications, the project is organised into five thematic domains: Forest, Agriculture, Cryosphere, Urban and Ocean. Hazard applications are treated as well. More in detail, for each thematic domain two main objectives are followed: 1. Identification of applications for which the availability of quad-polarimetric SAR data brings unique benefits and/or significant performance improvements when compared to single- or dual-polarimetric data. 2. Demonstration of the benefits / improvements induced by polarimetry by implementing the applications, applying them on suitable, if possible space-borne, SAR data and validating their performance against reference data available for each case. Important components of the project are the integration of the implemented applications in the ESA software PolSARpro and the generation of the appropriate demonstration examples for demonstration and educational purposes. Finally, the implemented applications and the generated showcases are being integrated in the open-access e-book “Principles and Applications of SAR Polarimetry”. In the presentation, an overview of the final results and of the book chapters for each implemented application in the five domains will be given. Also, the implemented applications together with their functionalities in PolSARpro will be illustrated.
In May 2013, the Biomass mission concept was selected to become the next in the series of satellites developed to further our understanding of Earth.
REPLAY EARTH EXPLORER 7 USER CONSULTATION MEETING (PART 1)
POLinSAR 2013 Workshop