Preliminary results of single pass polarimetric SAR interferometry

Unlike scalar interferometry, polarimetric interferometry provides the field cross correlation using various polarization responses. The main purpose of implementing polarimetric interferometry is to extract scattering medium information that may be difficult to obtain from scalar interferometry. Even though the formulation and initial demonstrations appear to be very promising, potential applications of polarimetric interferometry can only be verified by comparing polarimetric interferometry signatures with ground truth data. In order to accomplish this, the NASA/JPL TOPSAR system was modified to collect polarimetric interferometry data at C-band. During the 1998 deployment, several data sets were collected in the single pass polarimetric interferometry mode. The authors discuss important issues related to polarimetric interferometry calibration. In addition, the authors briefly discuss the polarimetric interferometric signature using the TOPSAR data.