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Remote Sensing and Digital Image Processing
Irena Hajnsek
Yves-Louis Desnos Editors
Polarimetric
Synthetic
Aperture Radar
Copyright © 2021. Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved.
Principles and Application
Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar : Principles and Application, edited by Irena Hajnsek, and Yves-Louis Desnos, Springer International Publishing AG, 2021. ProQuest Ebook
Volume 25
Series Editors
Freek D. van der Meer, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC),
Department of Earth Systems Analysis, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
Anna Jarocińska, Department of Geoinformatics, Cartography and Remote Sensing, University
of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Remote Sensing and Digital Image Processing book series. Remote sensing is the acquisition of
Physical data of an object without touch or contact. Earth observation satellites have been used
for many decades in a wide field of applications. With the advancements in sensor technology,
earth imaging is now possible at an unprecedented level of detail. Imaging spectrometers and
thermal multispectral systems acquire detailed spectroscopic information of physical properties
of the earth’s surface. Dynamic processes can now be studied with interferometric systems.
SAR interferometry, laser altimetry and high-resolution imaging allow a very detailed, three-
dimensional reconstruction of the earth surface. With the advent of multi-sensor mission comes
a new era of imaging, opening the possibility of integrating date from various sensor systems.
The books published in the series explore these topics in remote sensing and provide a
framework for related advanced digital image processing approaches.
Series Editorial Advisory Board:

Michael Abrams, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA
Paul Curran, City University London, UK
Arnold Dekker, CSIRO Land and Water Division, Canberra, Australia
Steven M. de Jong, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Michael Schaepman, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Accepted for inclusion in Scopus.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6477

Irena Hajnsek • Yves-Louis Desnos
Editors
Polarimetric Synthetic
Aperture Radar
Principles and Application
Editors
Irena Hajnsek Yves-Louis Desnos
Microwaves and Radar Institute Science, Application and Future Technology
German Aerospace Center (DLR) European Space Agency
Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany Frascati, Roma, Italy
Institute of Environmental Engineering
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Zurich (ETH Zurich)
Zürich, Switzerland
ISSN 1567-3200 ISSN 2215-1842 (electronic)

ISBN 978-3-030-56502-2 ISBN 978-3-030-56504-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56504-6
# The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021. This book is published open access.
Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in
any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to
the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book’s Creative Commons license, unless
indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book’s Creative Commons license
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made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Foreword
In the last 40 years, polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has evolved from an
experimental concept to the implementation of many airborne and spaceborne SAR systems.
In the meantime, many hard-working and dedicated researchers have developed theories and
algorithms for efficient information extraction in relevant applications. These advancements
have established SAR polarimetry as one of the principal remote sensing instruments for higher
resolution imaging and more precise monitoring of Earth resources.
SAR is an active radar system, transmitting and receiving microwave pulses, and provides
the desirable capability of all-weather, day and night imaging. For fully polarimetric SAR, also
known as quad-polarization (HH, HV, VH, and VV) SAR, scatterers’ dielectric properties and
structures can be detected by their scattering mechanisms. With additional interferometric
measurements, topography, building, and vegetation and forest height information can be
retrieved. It is no wonder that a plethora of applications has flourished ranging from agriculture,
forest, ocean, city buildings, terrain, cryosphere (glacier, ice, and snow), and environmental
protection. Of course, military and other applications are too numerous to mention here. Some
applications are well established and others are continuously advancing. Good survey papers on
applications are scarce and in pressing demand.
This book contains five comprehensive survey papers written by well-known PolSAR
researchers covering the application areas of forestry, agriculture and wetland, soil moisture
retrieval, cryosphere, urban, and ocean. In addition, a chapter on the principle of polarimetry is
given to provide a quick reference. The forest application chapter covers the techniques of
forest classification, polarimetric SAR interferometry for forest height estimation, and polari-
metric SAR tomography for 3D sensing. Due to the page limit, fine details could not be given.
This chapter could be easily expanded to a book on polarimetric SAR forest sensing, and so can
other chapters. The ocean application chapter details oil slick and ship detection. It could be
extended to include the important and interesting topics of coastal remote sensing, and ocean
current and wave measurements.
In summary, this book on polarimetric SAR applications is well written and timely. We
congratulate the book’s editors and authors for their dedicated effort and oversight in assem-
bling such a long overdue book on polarimetric SAR applications.

Wolfgang-Martin Boerner Ph.D., IEEE, IEICE Life Fellow, OSA, SPIE, AAAS Fellow,
Professor Emeritus & Distinguished Radar Scientist, The University of Illinois at Chicago
Jong-Sen Lee, Ph.D., IEEE Life Fellow, co-author of Polarimetric Radar Imaging (jointly
with Prof. Eric Pottier), published by CRC/Taylor and Francis
Preface
Dear readers and colleagues,

Welcome to the scientific publication Principles and Applications of Polarimetric Synthetic
Aperture Radar! This publication is open-access and has been co-authored by over 50 of the
worlds’ leading scientists, working in the relevant thematic domains. This book is also a
comprehensive resource for training and education that includes theory, examples of key
applications, and do-it-yourself tutorials. Following current trends in Earth Observation
(EO) open science, the key application examples provided in the various chapters may be
reproduced by the reader using the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data provided and the
algorithms implemented in the open-source PolSARpro toolbox.
In order for the (young) readers to fully understand the background of this collective,
collaborative and innovative publication, I would like to guide you through the genesis of
ideas, initiatives and events that led to its preparation, which spans over the last 35 years, and
can be summarised in several key periods presented below.
Pioneering Space-Borne SAR Interferometry

The first period of SAR interferometry started with the European Remote Sensing Satellite
(ERS-1), developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), which was launched in July 1991.
ERS-1 was equipped with a Synthetic Aperture Radar operating at C-band and single VV
polarisation. Although not known at the time (and therefore not specified in ERS-1 radar
development), scientists discovered, during preparation for the ERS-1 mission’s scientific
exploitation, that it was possible to exploit the phase difference from repeat pass acquisitions
to measure topography and ground deformation. The technique, known as SAR interferometry,
was demonstrated in orbit with ERS-1 data in August 1991 by the Politecnico di Milano team,
allowing to generate interferometric fringes and to measure centimetre deformation of the
terrain. ERS-1 was followed by the ERS-2 mission (launched in April 1995) after which
scientists proposed the first tandem experiment to ESA. The objective of this experiment,
which lasted 9 months, was to create a unique data set from highly coherent interferometric
pairs in order to generate digital elevation models with high accuracy.
It was during this period that ESA prepared the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR)
to be put on-board ENVISAT. ASAR was an active array antenna with beam steering and
multi-polarisation capability (HH/HV or VV/VH) and was launched in March 2002. As a
lesson learned from the ERS-1 mission, the instrument was specified to perform repeat pass
interferometry and the ground processor was developed for phase preservation of the ASAR
signals. ASAR was the first active array SAR instrument that operated flawlessly for 10 consec-
utive years in space. The ASAR instrument, thanks to its experimental alternating polarisation
mode, demonstrated the usefulness and importance of multi-polarisation radar for scientific and
application purposes. In addition, the ASAR instrument, although not designed for it,
demonstrated the capability of wide swath ScanSAR interferometry in orbit.
vii
viii Pioneering Space-Borne SAR Interferometry
Organising Airborne Polarimetric SAR Campaigns and Scientific Studies
During the ERS and ENVISAT missions period (1991–2012), airborne campaigns continued to
play an important role in supporting the development of future SAR missions – helping the
validation of new space-borne SAR products as well as providing key open data to the scientific
community. ESA, NASA, ONERA and DLR organised several multifrequency SAR
campaigns demonstrating the interest of full polarimetric and interferometric SAR data sets
for scientific research (e.g. MAESTRO, INDREX, AGRISAR, BIOSAR, AfriSAR, etc.). In
2000, reaping the full benefits of the available airborne campaign data, and in order to assess the
benefits and capabilities of the newly published “polarimetric interferometry technique” by
K. Papathanassiou and S. Cloude, ESA launched two SAR polarimetry studies. The objectives
of these studies were to investigate radar capability to penetrate ground cover and to “see” the
underlying terrain, as well as to assess the possible use of SAR imagery to characterise forest
structure and height. Since then, the collection of multi-frequency and multi-baseline polari-
metric SAR data via dedicated airborne campaigns continue to play an essential role in the
demonstration and development of innovative algorithms for potential bio-/ geophysical
product derivation and support the preparation for new space-borne missions.
Dialoguing with POLinSAR Scientists and Training the Next Generation
In 2003, the first POLinSAR workshop was organised to gather this new community, to present
the findings of ESA-funded studies of SAR Polarimetry and Polarimetric Interferometry
applications, and to prepare recommendations for future research work. ESA also implemented
the first recommendations from the POLinSAR community to provide a state-of-the art, open-
source educational software in the field of Polarimetric SAR data analysis. The Polarimetric
SAR Data Processing and Educational Toolbox (PolSARpro) was developed under ESA
contract by I.E.T.R at the University of Rennes 1, under the scientific leadership of
Prof. E. Pottier. To date, PolSARpro provides the most comprehensive set of functions for
the scientific exploitation of fully and partially polarimetric multi-data sets, and is used
worldwide.
Additionally, as a second recommendation from the POLinSAR community, a multi-year
programme of advanced thematic training courses and summer schools was organised for
training the next generation of ESA Principal Investigators in SAR Polarimetry. These training
events host about 60–70 scientists (i.e. Ph.D. students, young postdoctoral researchers) for a
one week duration, that include formal lectures on theory to advanced concepts, as well as
hands-on computing exercises, exposing students to EO data and the usage of ESA toolboxes.
In 2019, ESA is organising the 5th Advanced Course on Radar Polarimetry dedicated to
training the next generation of Earth Observation (EO) scientists to exploit dual and fully
polarimetric data for science and applications development.

At the end of 2017, ESA launched, jointly with University of Jena and DLR, the first
Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on SAR that was followed by over 6000 participants
and included modules on SAR polarimetry theory and applications using open-source
toolboxes. In 2019, ESA organised the 9th International Workshop on Science and
Applications of SAR Polarimetry and Polarimetric Interferometry, and the re-run of the SAR
MOOC with the participation of the Canadian Space Agency.
Pioneering Space-Borne SAR Polarimetric Interferometry
Recently, satellites with SAR polarimetric capability and different frequencies have been
launched (e.g. SIR-C/X-SAR, ALOS-2, RADARSAT-2 and TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X) and
Pioneering Space-Borne SAR Interferometry ix
operated successfully. Following the recommendations of scientists at POLinSAR, campaigns

were organised by Space Agencies to collect SAR data time series over a wide range of
validation sites. In addition, dedicated and successive Announcement of Opportunities to
research on spaceborne SAR polarimetry at different frequencies were opened to European
PIs by ESA for ALOS with JAXA (2005), with CSA for RADARSAT 2 SOAR EU (2009 and
2013), and with DLR for TerraSAR X –TanDEM-X.
Having acquired the suitable time series of space-borne data over proper validation tests
sites, and benefiting from expertise developed in Europe, we were in a position to advance from
demonstrations to applications and, as a result, identify key areas for which polarimetric data
provides unique benefits. For instance, the polarimetric interferometric forest height
measurements were demonstrated successfully using ALOS data in 2008, despite the long
repeat pass intervals, and were validated using airborne data.
Future Missions
In 2013, the BIOMASS mission became the first ESA SAR mission with fully polarimetric
capabilities selected to be the 7th Earth Explorer mission for launch in 2022. The primary
scientific objectives of the mission are to determine the distribution of above-ground biomass in
the world forests and to measure its annual changes, to help improve our understanding of the
land carbon cycle. The BIOMASS radar sensor is a fully polarimetric space-borne SAR
operating at P-band. During the first year of the mission, a tomographic phase will provide a
full global coverage. The remaining 4 years will be an interferometric phase, providing full
global coverage every 6 months. Though the prime objective is to collect data over forest, it is
also foreseen to collect additional data over land, ice caps and the ocean, as appropriate. The
data collected by this mission will allow advanced retrieval concepts based on polarimetric
interferometry and polarimetric tomography, developed since 2003 via several ESA and DLR
studies, to be put in practice.
Other SAR satellite missions are currently under study to provide fully polarimetric
capabilities in future, such as the German Tandem-L, the European Commission Copernicus
Sentinel-1 Next Generation and the Copernicus L-band candidate mission. The need for
polarimetric SAR satellite missions and global coverage is now being well recognised.
From Science to Applications
In 2011, ESA launched the PolSAR-Ap project, aimed at evaluating and demonstrating the
importance and unique benefits of fully polarimetric SAR data for a wide range of remote
sensing applications. The project was awarded to DLR and coordinated by Prof. Irena Hajnsek.
The main study objective was the identification of applications for which the availability of
fully polarimetric SAR data brings unique benefits and/or significant performance
improvements when compared to single or dual polarimetric data. In addition, the demonstra-
tion of the improvements induced by polarimetry was to be performed by implementing the
applications algorithms, applying them on suitable space-borne SAR data (if available) and
validating their performance against reference data available for each case. In order to cover a
whole range of remote sensing applications, the study was organised into thematic domains:
Forest, Agriculture, Cryosphere, Urban, Ocean and Hazard applications.
This publication aims to present the outcome of the PolSAR-Ap project and to introduce key
research results, authored by scientific experts participating in the study. Some of the relevant
applications are also implemented in the ESA open-source software PolSARpro allowing the
easy generation and replication of key examples.
x Pioneering Space-Borne SAR Interferometry
Outlook
Today, ESA is developing fully polarimetric space-borne SAR missions at P-band, whilst
studying L-band and C-band mission concepts and preparing for their scientific exploitation.
ESA data are freely and openly available for further exploitation by the community. ESA is
supporting the emerging EO “open science” practices, taking full advantage of the digital age
and addressing new ways to do research for society and in society. ESA “open science”
activities will include open access publications, open-source scientific toolboxes, new ways
to educate via MOOCs, enhanced research using applications platforms and virtual research
environments, increased collaboration using social networks, as well as innovative citizen
science projects.
We sincerely wish the reader a good journey through the Principles and Applications of
Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar. You are kindly invited to use the sample data and the
ESA toolbox for demonstration and educational purposes. We would like to acknowledge the
contribution of all co-authors and special thanks to the Chapter Leads Dr. Carlos Lopez
Martinez, Prof. Eric Pottier, Dr. Shane Cloude, Dr. Kostas Papathanassiou, Dr. Juan Manuel
Lopez Sanchez, Prof. Maurizio Migliaccio and Dr Elise Colin Koeniger.
Sincerely,
Yves-Louis Desnos and Irena Hajnsek
In Memoriam
This book is dedicated to our beloved colleague and friend Prof. Wolfgang Boerner, age
80, who passed away on May 25, 2018, during the development of the book. Wolfgang was
one of the strongest promoters for establishing a polarimetric SAR framework and applying it to
a variety of applications. We have known Wolfgang attending countless workshops,
conferences and meetings, promoting radar polarimetry and networking alongside scientists
and researchers all around the world, with endless energy and passion. His presentations and
talks were legendary, unpredictable, and nothing short of memorable!
For the upcoming scientists, Wolfgang was the one to introduce them to the famous
polarimetry experts whose names could be found on papers they have read many times. He
was integrating everyone into the “polarimetric family” and he appeared as the “grandfather” of
this international family. In this way, he was opening a new perspective on the scientific world
but also on the real world for us. He followed the progress of young scientists from workshop to
workshop and from conference to conference. He praised the progress, encouraged the
overcoming of problems and urged to continue to work hard. He never allowed us to resign
in difficult moments. He himself, with his energetic and tireless promotion and his confidence
on the importance of polarimetry, has been the best example of resilience to students and young
professionals. He was a real mentor, at a time when the importance of mentoring was not yet
well established. We – all his co-strugglers – got formed and stand by his idea that polarimetric
radar and remote sensing collaboration will improve the world.
Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany Irena Hajnsek

Frascati, Roma, Italy Yves-Louis Desnos
Contents
1 Basic Principles of SAR Polarimetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

C. López-Martínez and E. Pottier
2 Forest Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
K. P. Papathanassiou, S. R. Cloude, M. Pardini, M. J. Quiñones, D. Hoekman,
L. Ferro-Famil, D. Goodenough, H. Chen, S. Tebaldini, M. Neumann,
L. M. H. Ulander, and M. J. Soja
3 Agriculture and Wetland Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
J. M. Lopez-Sanchez, J. D. Ballester-Berman, F. Vicente-Guijalba, S. R. Cloude,
H. McNairn, J. Shang, H. Skriver, T. Jagdhuber, I. Hajnsek, E. Pottier,
C. Marechal, L. Hubert-Moy, S. Corgne, S. Wdowinski, R. Touzi, G. Gosselin,
R. Brooks, Y. Yamaguchi, and G. Singh
4 Cryosphere Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
I. Hajnsek, G. Parrella, A. Marino, T. Eltoft, M. Necsoiu, L. Eriksson,
and M. Watanabe
5 Urban Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
E. Colin-Koeniguer, N. Trouve, Y. Yamaguchi, Y. Huang, L. Ferro-Famil,
V. D. Navarro Sanchez, J. M. Lopez Sanchez, D. Monells, R. Iglesias,
X. Fabregas, J. Mallorqui, A. Aguasca, and C. López-Martínez
6 Ocean Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
M. Migliaccio, F. Nunziata, A. Marino, C. Brekke, and S. Skrunes
Appendix: Test Sites and Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
xi
Symbols
α Absolute angle (polarisation ellipse)

A Anisotropy
ρ Complex polarisation ratio
n o
T ¼ E kp kT Coherency matrix
p

C ¼ E kl kT
l
Covariance matrix
DoP Degree of polarisation
λ Eigenvalue
u Eigenvector
!
Eðz, t Þ Electric field (real)
!
Eðz, t Þ Electric field (complex)
τ Ellipticity angle
H Entropy
fbx, b
y, bzg Euclidian coordine system (unitary vectors)
E{} Expectation
ω Frequency (angular)
f Frequency (time)
N ð0, σ 2 Þ Gaussian/Normal real pdf
CN ð0, σ 2 Þ Gaussian/Normal complex pdf
N ð0, CÞ, CN ð0, CÞ Gaussian/Normal multidimensional pdf
ℑ{} Imaginary part
γ Interferometric coherence
Ε Jones vector
K Kennaugh matrix
N
Kronecker product
! Magnetic field (real)
Hðz, t Þ

x x Matrix
x x
()T Matrix/vector transposition
() Matrix/vector conjugate
()T Matrix/vector conjugate transpose (Hermitian)
()1 Matrix/vector inverse
α Mean alpha angle
M Mueller matrix
ϕ Orientation angle (polarisation ellipse)
b
k Propagation vector
δ ¼ δy δx Phase difference (polarisation ellipse)
ρ ¼ jρje jϕx Polarimetric coherence
ℜ{} Real part
xiii
xiv Symbols
InSAR SAR interferometry

PolSAR SAR polarimetry

Shh Shv Scattering matrix
S¼
Svh Svv
DInSAR Differential SAR interferometry
PolInSAR Polarimetric SAR interferometry
TomoSAR SAR tomography
S, Shh, Shv, Svh, Svv SAR image
S(x, r) SAR image (azimuth – range)
SPAN Span
g Stokes vector
k Target vector
kl Target vector (Lexicographic basis)
kp Target vector (Pauli basis)
2 3
x Vector
6x7
6 7
6 7
4x5
x
J Wave coherence vector/matrix
W ðnC, mÞ Wishart pdf
Basic Principles of SAR Polarimetry
1
C. López-Martínez and E. Pottier
Abstract information. As a result, the first part presents the so-called

This chapter critically summarizes the main theoretical wave polarimetry that deals with the representation and the
aspects necessary for a correct processing and interpreta- understanding of the polarization state of an electromagnetic
tion of the polarimetric information towards the develop- wave. The second part introduces the concept of scattering
ment of applications of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) polarimetry. This concept collects the topic of inferring the
polarimetry. First of all, the basic principles of wave properties of a given target, from a polarimetric point of view,
polarimetry (which deals with the representation and the given the incident and the scattered polarized electromagnetic
understanding of the polarization state of an electromag- waves.
netic wave) and scattering polarimetry (which concerns
inferring the properties of a target given the incident and 1.1.1.1 Electromagnetic Waves and Wave
the scattered polarized electromagnetic waves) are given. Polarization Descriptors
Then, concepts regarding the description of polarimetric The generation, the propagation and the interaction with
data are reviewed, covering statistical and scattering matter of the electric and the magnetic waves are governed
aspects, the latter in terms of coherent and incoherent by Maxwell’s equations (Balanis 1989). For an electromag-
decomposition techniques. Finally, polarimetric SAR netic wave that is propagating in the bz direction, the real
interferometry and tomography, two acquisition modes electric wave can be decomposed into two orthogonal
that enable the extraction of the 3-D scatterer position components b x and b y , admitting the following vector
and separation, respectively, and their polarimetric char- formulation:
acterization, are described.
2 3 2 3
Ex E0x cos ðωt kz þ δx Þ
! 6 7 6 7
Eðz, t Þ ¼ 4 E y 5 ¼ 4 E 0y cos ωt kz þ δy 5 ð1:1Þ
1.1 Theory of Radar Polarimetry
Ez 0
1.1.1 Wave Polarimetry
which may be also considered in a complex form
Polarimetry refers specifically to the vector nature of the 2 3 2 3

Ex jδx jkz jωt
electromagnetic waves, whereas radar polarimetry is the sci- E 0x e e e
! 6 7 6 jδy jkz jωt 7,
ence of acquiring, processing and analysing the polarization Eðz, t Þ ¼ 4 Ey 5 ¼ 4 E 0y e e e 5 ð1:2Þ
state of an electromagnetic wave in radar applications. This Ez 0
section summarizes the main theoretical aspects necessary for
a correct processing and interpretation of the polarimetric where E0x and E0y are the amplitudes of the waves in each
coordinate. The electric wave in (1.1) and (1.2) presents a
C. López-Martínez (*) harmonic time dependence of the type e jωt, where ω ¼ 2πf is
Signal Theory and Communications Department, Universitat the angular frequency and f is the time frequency. The propa-
Politècnica de Catalunya , Barcelona, Spain
e-mail: carlos.lopez@tsc.upc.edu gation direction of an electromagnetic wave is determined by
the propagation vector b k that in case of (1.1) and (1.2) is
E. Pottier
Institut d’Électronique et de Télécommunications de Rennes, University considered parallel to bz . The amplitude of the propagation
of Rennes-1, Rennes, France vector is represented by k ¼ 2π/λ, where λ is the wavelength.
# The Author(s) 2021 1

I. Hajnsek, Y.-L. Desnos (eds.), Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar, Remote Sensing and Digital Image Processing 25,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56504-6_1
2 C. López-Martínez and E. Pottier
Finally, δx and δy represent the wave phases in each compo-

!
nent. The magnetic wave Hðz, t Þ can be also represented in
the same form.
According to the IEEE Standard Definitions for Antennas
(IEEE standard number 145 1983), the polarization of a
radiated wave is defined as that property of the radiated
electromagnetic wave describing a time-varying direction
and relative magnitude of the electric wave vector, specifi-
cally the figure traced as a function of time by the extremity
of the vector at a fixed location in space and the sense in
which it is traced as observed along the direction of propaga-
tion. Hence, polarization is the curve traced out by the end
point of the arrow representing the instantaneous
electric wave.
Let us consider the geometric locus described by the
electric wave, as a function of time, for a particular point in
space, which can be assumed z ¼ z0, without loss of general-
ity. Under these hypotheses, the wave components Ex and Ey
satisfy the following equation:
2 2
Ex Ex Ey Ey Fig. 1.1 Polarization ellipse
2 cos δy δx þ
E 0x E 0x E 0y E 0y

¼ sin δy δx : ð1:3Þ
E 0x E0y
j sin 2τj ¼ 2 j sin δj ð1:5Þ
The previous equation describes an ellipse that is called E 20x þ E20y
polarization ellipse. As one may deduce from the previous
equation, the electric wave, as a function of time, describes in • The polarization sense or handedness. This determines the
the most general case an ellipse, whose shape does depend sense in which the polarization ellipse is described. This
neither on time nor on space. The polarization ellipse, for parameter is given by the sign of the ellipticity angle τ.
some particular configurations, may reduce to a circle or to Following the IEEE convention (IEEE standard number
a line. 145 1983), the polarization ellipse is right-handed if the
As it may be deduced from (1.3), the polarization state is electric vector tip rotates clockwise for a wave observed in
completely characterized by three independent parameters:
the direction of propagation, given by b k. On the contrary,
the wave amplitudes E0x and E0y and the phase difference
it is said to be left-handed. Therefore, for τ < 0 the polari-
δ ¼ δy δx. Figure 1.1 presents the polarization ellipse for a
zation sense is right-handed, whereas for τ > 0 it is left-
general polarization state. In addition to the previous three
handed.
parameters, it is also possible to describe the polarization
• The polarization ellipse amplitude A. For a major and
ellipse by a different set of parameters:
minor ellipse axes amplitudes a and b, respectively, A ¼
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
• Orientation or tilt angle ϕ. This angle gives the orientation a2 þ b2 . This amplitude may be also obtained as
of the ellipse major axis with respect to the b
x axis in such a
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
way that ϕ 2 [π/2, π/2]. This angle may be obtained as
A¼ E 20x þ E20y ð1:6Þ
follows:
E 0x E 0y • The absolute phase ζ. This phase represents the initial
tan 2ϕ ¼ 2 cos δ: ð1:4Þ
E20x E 20y phase with respect to the phase origin for t ¼ 0 in such a
way that ζ 2 [π, π]. This term corresponds to the com-
• Ellipticity angle τ. This angle represents the ellipse aper- mon phase in δx and δy. This absolute phase cannot be
ture in such a way that τ 2 [π/4, π/4]. This angle may be directly measured as it corresponds to the exit phase from
obtained as follows: the radar system at t ¼ 0.
1 Basic Principles of SAR Polarimetry 3
" # (" jδx # )

Considering the previous sets of parameters describing the ! E0x cos ðωtkzþδx Þ E 0x e
jkz jωt
polarization state of a wave, one can identify some important Eðz,t Þ¼ ¼ℜ e e ¼
polarization states that can be considered as canonical polari- E0y cos ωtkzþδy E 0y e jδy
zation states: n! o
¼ℜ Ε ðzÞejωt ð1:9Þ
• Linear polarization state. Considering the expression for
the real electric wave in (1.1), two canonical linear polari- where ℜ{} denotes the real part. The time dependence has
zation states can be identified. Table 1.1 details the orien- been removed from the wave description. This is possible as
tation and the ellipticity angles for these polarization the polarization state of the wave does not change with time.
states. These are the linear polarization states according In order to derive a simple and concise description of the
to the b
x and to the b
y axes, respectively. The linear polari- polarization state, it is also possible to remove the space
!
zation states are characterized by presenting a phase dif- dependence of Ε ðzÞ by considering the polarization state in
ference of a particular point of the space. Without loss of generality, this
!
point can be z ¼ 0. Hence, Ε ð0Þ reduces to
δ ¼ δy δx ¼ mπ, m ¼ 0, 1, 2, . . . ð1:7Þ " #
! jδx
E0x e
As it may be seen, the linear nature of the polarization E ¼ E ð 0Þ ¼ jδy
: ð1:10Þ
E0y e
state is independent of the phase ζ.
The two-dimensional complex vector Ε is referred to as
• Circular polarization state. In this particular case, also two
the Jones vector, and it is a concise representation of a
canonical circular polarization states can be defined.
monochromatic, uniform plane wave with a constant polari-
Table 1.1 details the orientation and the ellipticity angles
zation (Jones 1941a; Jones 1941b; Jones 1941c).
for these polarization states. When the ellipticity angle
In the rectangular coordinate system, the Jones vector can
takes a value of π/4, the circular polarization state is
be written as a function of the parameters that describe the
right-handed, whereas this value is equal to π/4 when it is
polarization ellipse (Huynen 1970):
left-handed. The circular polarization states are
characterized by presenting a phase difference of
cos ϕ sin ϕ cos τ
E ¼ Aejζ : ð1:11Þ
π sin ϕ cos ϕ j sin τ
δ ¼ δy δx ¼ m m ¼ 1, 3, 5, . . . ð1:8Þ
2
The Jones vector, considering the unitary vectors b
x and b
y,
and equal amplitudes for the components of the electric wave may be also expressed as
E0 ¼ E0x ¼ E0y. Also for circular polarization states, the

polarization state is independent of the absolute phase ζ. cos ϕ sin ϕ cos τ j sin τ
E bb ¼A
x, y, sin ϕ cos ϕ j sin τ cos τ
• Elliptical polarization state. When there are not jζ
e 0
restrictions on the orientation and ellipticity angle values, bx ð1:12Þ
the electric wave is said to present an elliptical polariza- 0 ejζ
tion state.
where the sub-index fb x, b
y, g indicates that the Jones vector is
As observed, the polarization ellipse may be completely expressed in the linear basis fb x, b
y, g. The Jones vector
described by two equivalent sets of three independent describes completely the polarization ellipse shape, as well
parameters: the set of wave parameters {E0x, E0y, δ} or the as the rotation sense of the electric wave vector. On the
set of ellipse parameters {ϕ, τ, A}. In addition to these, there contrary, handedness information cannot be included within
exist additional equivalent descriptors that are detailed in the the Jones vector as propagation information has been
following. removed. The use of the Jones vector to describe the polari-
Considering (1.1), the real electric wave vector can be zation state is of enormous importance as it allows to define a
directly obtained from the complex electric wave vector polarization algebra that makes possible to perform a mathe-
Table 1.1 Geometrical parameters of the polarization ellipse for canonical polarization states in the rectangular coordinate system
Linear x Linear y Linear π/4 Linear 3π/4 Right hand circ. Left hand circ.
φ 0 π/2 π/4 3π/4 [π/2, π/2] [π/2, π/2]
τ 0 0 0 0 -π/4 π/4
matical treatment and analysis of the wave polarization. This parameters, since, as it may be deduced from (1.15), the
treatment allows, for instance, the correct definition of following relation applies
orthogonal polarization states. Finally, Table 1.2 details the
Jones vector, in the rectangular basis, i.e. E bx, by, , for some g20 ¼ g21 þ g22 þ g23 : ð1:16Þ
particular polarization states.
Another equivalent description of the wave polarization Table 1.3 details the Stokes vector, in the rectangular
state is the so-called complex polarization ratio: basis, i.e. g bx, by, , for some particular polarization states.
E y E0y jðδy δy Þ 1.1.1.2 Totally and Partially Polarized Waves

ρ¼ ¼ e : ð1:13Þ
E x E0x Single-frequency or monochromatic waves are completely
polarized, that is, the tip of the electric wave vector describes
As in the case of the Jones vector, the complex polariza- an ellipse in the plane orthogonal to the propagation direc-
tion ratio is not able to determine the handedness of the tion. The shape of this ellipse, neglecting attenuation propa-
polarization state as propagation information is removed. gation effects which affect only the overall power, does not
The Jones vectors, as well as the complex polarization change in time or space, and hence, the wave polarization is
ratio, are complex quantities that describe the polarization constant. Completely polarized waves appear when the dif-
state of a wave. Sir G. Stokes introduced a wave polarization ferent parameters of the wave ω, E0x, E0y, δx and δy are
and wave amplitude description based on four real quantities constant. Nevertheless, many waves present in the nature
in polarization wave optics (Stokes 1852). The Stokes vector, are characterized by the fact that the previous parameters
in the rectangular coordinate system, is defined as (Stokes depend on time or on space randomly. Hence, the tip of the
1852) electric wave vector no longer describes an ellipse. These
2 2
3 waves are referred to as partially polarized waves. This loss
2 3 jE x j2 þ E y of polarization is due to the randomness of the illuminated
g0 6 7
6 2 27 scene, to the presence of noise, etc.
6 g 7 6 jE x j E y 7
6 17 6 n o 7 The different parameters that characterize the electric
g¼6 7¼6 7 ð1:14Þ
4 g2 5 6 2ℜ Ex E y 7 wave, i.e. ω, E0x, E0y, δx and δy, may vary randomly. This
6 7
g3 4 n o5 type of variation makes the electric wave to be modulated and

2ℑ Ex E y therefore to present a finite bandwidth, so waves can no
longer be considered as being monochromatic, but polychro-
where the elements of the vector g are simply called Stokes matic. Under this circumstance, it would be also desirable to
parameters. Consequently, the Stokes vector is a four- have a complex representation of the electromagnetic wave
dimensional real vector. Since the Stokes vector describes as shown in (1.10). Nevertheless, in most of the applications,
the polarization state of an electromagnetic wave, it can be we are interested into electromagnetic waves that will only
directly obtained from the geometrical parameters that have appreciable values in a frequency range which is small
describe the polarization ellipse, i.e. {ϕ, τ, A}: compared to the mean frequency ω. Under this situation,
waves are referred to as quasi-monochromatic waves. For
2 3 such signals, the phase terms Θx(z, t) and Θy(z, t) change
A
6 A cos ð2ϕÞ cos ð2τÞ 7 slowly when compared to the mean frequency. Then, one
6 7
g¼6 7: ð1:15Þ may represent the Jones vector of a quasi-monochromatic
4 A sin ð2ϕÞ cos ð2τÞ 5
wave as
A sin ð2τÞ
" ! #
jΘx ð r ,t Þ
E x ðt Þe
The polarization state of an electromagnetic wave is Ε¼ ! : ð1:17Þ
jΘy ð r ,t Þ
completely characterized by means of three independent E y ðt Þe
parameters. These statements also hold for the Stokes
Table 1.2 Jones vector for some polarization states in the rectangular coordinate system, for A ¼ 1

E bb 1 0 1 1 1 1
x,y p1ffiffi p1ffiffi p1ffiffi p1ffiffi
0 1 2 1 2 1 2 j 2 j
Table 1.3 Stokes vector for some polarization states in the rectangular coordinate system, for A ¼ 1
2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3
g bb 1 1 1 1 1 1
x,y
617 6 1 7 607 6 0 7 6 0 7 607
6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7
6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7
405 4 0 5 415 4 1 5 4 0 5 405
0 0 0 0 1 1
As one may see, the Jones vector of a quasi- state of a quasi-monochromatic wave. This characterization
monochromatic electric wave depends on time and on shall be performed considering higher statistical moments.
space; thus, this vector is no longer constant. When the time The second-order moments may be arranged in a vector
dependence of the Jones vector is deterministic, the polari- form, giving rise to the so-called coherency vector of a quasi-
metric properties of the wave also change in a deterministic monochromatic vector, which is defined in the following
way through time. In this case, the description of the wave way:
polarization is not problematic and may be performed con-
3 2
sidering the different descriptors detailed in Sect. 1.1.1.1. E E x Ex 2 3
Nevertheless, if the time dependence is random, the analysis 6 n o7 J xx
6 7
n O o 6 E E x Ey 7 6 J xy 7
of the polarization state of the electromagnetic wave must be
J¼E Ε Ε ¼ 6 7 6 7
carefully addressed, as this description must take into account 6 E E E 7 ¼ 6 4
7
J yx 5
ð1:19Þ
6 y x 7
the stochastic nature of the electric wave. 4 n o5
E E y Ey J yy
As previously mentioned, the variation of the parameters
E0x, E0y, δx and δy may be random, so the Jones vector will be
also random. In order to characterize the polarization of the where J stands for the temporal averaging, assuming the
N
quasi-monochromatic electromagnetic wave expressed by wave is stationary, is the Kronecker product, ()
the variable Jones vector in (1.17), it is necessary to address represents complex conjugation and E{} is the ensemble
this characterization from a stochastic point of view. In the average. This vector is not zero for quasi-monochromatic
frame of radar remote sensing, the wave transmitted by the waves. The arrangement of the second-order moments can
radar system may be considered monochromatic and hence be also done in a matrix, giving rise to the coherency matrix
totally polarized. Nevertheless, the scattered wave of the wave:
represented by the Jones vector in (1.17) results from the 2 n o3
combination of many different waves originated by the dif- E E x E x E E x Ey
6 7
ferent elementary scatterers that form the scattering media. J ¼ E Ε ΕT ¼ 4 n o5
The complex addition of these elementary waves resulting E E y E x E Ey Ey
from the scattering process for one component of the electric

J xx J xy
wave can be represented as ¼ ð1:20Þ

J yx J yy
1 X
N
Aejθ ¼ pffiffiffiffi an e jθn
ð1:18Þ where the superscript ()T denotes vector transposition.
N n¼1
In the previous section, it was mentioned that monochro-
matic waves are completely polarized. This is not the case for
where A represents the total wave and an e jθn is originated
quasi-monochromatic waves. Indeed, completely polarized
from the scattering from every elementary scatterer. Under
waves present a polarization state that can be considered as
the assumption of N, i.e. the total number of scattered waves,
a limit in the sense that it is constant. The opposed extreme is
to be large enough and certain relations that may be
a completely unpolarized wave for which the polarization
established between the amplitude and the phase of the ele-
state is completely random. Between both extremes, waves
mentary waves (Chandrasekhar 1960; Goodman 1976), it is
are said to present a partial polarization state. In order to
possible to demonstrate that the mean value of the electric
characterize the degree of polarization, one may consider
wave and the Jones vector are zero. Consequently, the Jones
the degree of polarization defined as a function of the trace
vector cannot be employed to characterize the polarization
of matrix J as
12 Considering what has been indicated, an electromagnetic

jJj
DoP ¼ 14 : ð1:21Þ wave propagating in an infinite, lossless, isotropic media may
traceðJÞ
be described in the following way:
E ¼ E xb
x þ E yb
y ¼ Ex b
ux þ E y b
uy ð1:24Þ
1.1.1.3 Change of Polarization Basis
As seen in Sect. 1.1.1.1, an electromagnetic wave, consider-
where the notation referring to the unitary vectors has been
ing the coordinate system fb x, b
y, bzg, that propagates in bz may
generalized. If (1.23) and (1.24) are considered, it may be
be decomposed as the sum of two orthogonal components.
seen that the unitary Jones vectors corresponding to the linear
Separately, the electromagnetic wave of each component can
orthogonal polarization states bx and b
y are transformed to the
be considered as linearly polarized. Therefore, it is possible
Jones vector of any polarization state and the corresponding
to consider that the total electromagnetic wave results from
orthogonal Jones vector through the transformation matrix U:
the sum of two orthogonal linear polarized waves. Indeed,
this representation must be extended in the sense that any " #" #" #
electromagnetic wave propagating in an infinite, lossless, cos ϕ sinϕ cos τ jsinτ ejζ 0
fb u⊥ g ¼
u,b fb
x, b
y, g
isotropic media can be decomposed as the sum of two orthog- sinϕ cos ϕ jsinτ cos τ 0 ejζ
onal elliptically polarized waves. The advantage of this rep- ¼ U bb fb
x, b
y, g :
u, u⊥
resentation is that the electric wave is decomposed in a pair of
orthogonal polarization states, so it is possible, through a ð1:25Þ
deterministic transformation, to obtain the electric wave for
any other pair of orthogonal polarization states. This process In the previous case, the matrix U bb indicates the
u,u⊥
is referred to as change of polarization basis or polarization
transformation matrix from the orthogonal basis fb x, b
y, g to
synthesis.
the arbitrary basis fb
u, b
u⊥ g. Considering (1.24), the electro-
Given two vectors a and b, they are considered orthogonal
magnetic wave expressed in the orthogonal basis fb u, b
u⊥ g
if they verify
takes the form
ha, bi ¼ aT b ¼ 0 ð1:22Þ E ¼ Eu b
u þ E u⊥ b
u⊥ : ð1:26Þ
that is, the scalar (Hermitian) product of both vectors is zero. Therefore, the Jones vector in the new basis fu b, b
u⊥ g ,
In case of two electromagnetic waves, expressed in terms of expressed in terms of the Jones vector in the basis fb
x, b
y, g, is
the corresponding Jones vectors, they are said to be orthogo-
nal if the scalar product of the Jones vectors is zero, consid-
Eu Ex
ering that both Jones vectors refer to waves propagating in ¼ U1 : ð1:27Þ
E u⊥ bu,bu⊥ Ey
the same direction and sense. The polarization ellipses
corresponding to two orthogonal Jones vectors presents the
The previous equation indicates that if an electromagnetic
same ellipticity angle, opposite polarization sense and mutu-
wave has been measured in the linear orthogonal basis, it is
ally orthogonal polarization axis. That is, for a Jones vector
possible to calculate the same electromagnetic wave, but
representing a polarization state characterized by an orienta-
measured in a different polarization basis, just multiplying
tion angle ϕ, an ellipticity angle τ and an absolute phase ζ, its
by the matrix U1 . That is, it is possible to synthesize the
orthogonal Jones vector presents an orientation angle of bu,bu⊥
value ϕ + π, an ellipticity angle of value τ and an absolute electromagnetic wave for any arbitrary polarization basis just
phase ζ. In terms of (1.12), the corresponding orthogonal measuring it in a particular polarization basis.
vector is Table 1.4 and Table 1.5 detail the polarization ellipse
" #" #" # parameters, the Jones vector and the Stokes vector for differ-
sinϕ cosϕ cosτ jsinτ ejζ 0 ent polarization states for the rotated and the linear polariza-
E ¼A b
x
⊥ b
x,b tion bases, respectively.
y,
cosϕ sinϕ jsinτ cosτ 0 ejζ

cosϕ sinϕ cosτ jsinτ
¼A
sinϕ cosϕ jsinτ cosτ 1.1.2 Scattering Polarimetry
jζ
e 0
by: ð1:23Þ The previous section was concerned with the characterization
0 ejζ and the representation of the polarization state of an electro-
magnetic wave. Although this characterization is important
The symbol ⊥ denotes orthogonal Jones vector.
Table 1.4 Polarization states expressed in the rotated linear polarization basis b
uπ=4 , b
uπ=4 , when A ¼ 1
φ - π/4 π/4 0 π/2 ? ?
τ 0 0 0 0 π/4 -π/4

E b b 1 1 1 0 1þj 1j
uπ=4 ,uπ=4 p1ffiffi p1ffiffi 1 1
2 1 2 1 0 1 2
1 þ j 2
1 j
2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3
g bu ,bu 1 1 1 1 1 1
π=4 π=4
6 0 7 607 617 6 1 7 607 6 0 7
6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7
6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7
4 1 5 415 405 4 0 5 405 4 0 5
0 0 0 0 1 1
Table 1.5 Polarization states expressed in the circular polarization basis fb

ulc , b
urc g, for A ¼ 1
φ ? ? π/4 3π/4 0 π/2
τ - π/4 π/4 0 0 0 0

E bu ,bu 1 j 1j 1 j 1 0
lc rc p1ffiffi p1ffiffi 1 1
2 j 2 1 2
1j 2
1þj 0 1
2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3
g bu ,bu 1 1 1 1 1 1
6 0 7 607 607 6 0 7 617 6 1 7
lc rc
6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7
6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7 6 7
4 0 5 405 415 4 1 5 405 4 0 5
1 1 0 0 0 0
when a radar system is considered, as it transmits and In order to examine specifically reflections at oblique
receives electromagnetic waves, nevertheless, the interest is angles of incidence for a general wave polarization, it is
on the scattering process itself. The radar system transmits an convenient to decompose the electric wave into its perpen-
electromagnetic wave, with a given polarization state, that dicular and parallel components, relative to the plane of
reaches the scatterer of interest. The energy of the incident scattering. The total scattered and transmitted waves will be
wave interacts with the scatterer, and as a result part of this the vector sum from each of these two polarizations. When
energy is reradiated to the space. The way this energy is the wave is perpendicular to the plane of scattering, the
reradiated depends on the properties of the incident wave, polarization of the wave is referred to as perpendicular polar-
as well as on the scatterer itself. Consequently, it is possible ization or horizontal polarization as the electric wave is
to infer some information of the scatterer under consideration parallel to the interface. When the electromagnetic wave is
considering the properties of the scattered electromagnetic parallel to the plane of scattering, the polarization is referred
wave with respect to the incident wave, which is basically the to as parallel polarization or vertical polarization as the elec-
transmitted wave by the radar. One possibility that can be tromagnetic wave is also perpendicular to the interface. As
studied to characterize distant targets is to consider the !i
indicated in Fig. 1.2, the total incident wave E can be
change of the polarization state that a scatterer may induce decomposed into two orthogonal components in the plane
to an incident wave.
orthogonal to the incident propagation vector b
i
k . These are
In order to analyse the scattering problem, it is worth to !i !i
start describing the scattering process that occurs when an the parallel E k and the perpendicular E ⊥ components,
incident wave reaches a flat transition between two dielectric, which can be written as
infinite, lossless and homogeneous media in oblique inci- D E
j b
i
dence. This scattering situation is exemplified in Fig. 1.2. In k ,r
this case, the incident wave that propagates in the first media E ¼E e
i i
x0 ,
b ð1:28Þ
reaches the transition between media where part of the inci-
dent energy is scattered in the same media and part of the
!i
E⊥ ¼ E i⊥ ejhk ,rib
energy is transmitted to the second media. In order to charac- i 0
y: ð1:29Þ
terize the scattering process, it is necessary to introduce the
concept of plane of scattering, which is defined as the plane As observed, the incident wave has been defined with
generated by the propagating vectors of the incident and the 0 0 0
respect to the coordinate system b
x ,b
y , bz in such a way
scattered waves.
z As observed, there are different points that need to be

considered in the analysis of this problem. The first one is
x’ x’’ s the use of different coordinate systems to characterize, in an
Ei|| E ||
z’’ unambiguous way, the polarization state of the different
Ei waves involved in the scattering process. The second aspect,
z’ E
s
y’ coupled to the previous one, is to determine the way the
i s y’’
scatterer under study changes the different components of
the wave. This section has studied this entire problem con-
t y sidering the analytical expressions of the waves.
E || x’’’
t 1.1.2.1 The Scattering Matrix
z’’’
E t This section will address the generalization of the previous
y’’’
x
scattering problem, and it will introduce those concepts nec-
essary to address it in a vector form. The first aspect that
needs to be fixed is to determine the different coordinate
Fig. 1.2 Oblique incidence systems necessary to characterize the scattering problem
and the description of the incident and the reflected waves.
that b
i
k ¼ bz0 . It may be shown that the scattered wave In the scattering problem, three coordinate systems must be
components can be written similarly chosen. The first one is the coordinate system located at the
centre of the scatterer under consideration and referred to as
!s 00 fbx, b
y, bzg . This coordinate system may be considered as a
E ¼ E s ejhk ,rib
s
x , ð1:30Þ kind of absolute or global coordinate system. In addition to it,
it is necessary to define two additional local coordinate
!s
systems in order to determine, in an unambiguous way, the
00
E⊥ ¼ E s⊥ ejhk ,rib
s
y , ð1:31Þ polarization states of the incident and the scattered or
n o reflected waves, respectively. These two coordinate systems,
0 00 00
but in this case according to bx0 , b
y , bz . associated with the waves, are defined in terms of the global
coordinate system.
Considering the equations of the incident and the scattered
Let us consider an object illuminated by an electromag-
wave, the question rising at this point is to determine whether
netic plane wave which may be described as
it is possible or not to express mathematically the scattering
process that occurs at the interface between both media. First !i
of all, it is of crucial importance to take into consideration y0 ¼ E x b
x0 þ E y b
E ¼ E xb hi þ Eyb
vi ð1:33Þ
where, in the space, the expressions of the incident and
scattered waves are valid. The expressions in (1.28), (1.29), where the unitary vectors b x0 and by0 are arbitrarily defined.
(1.30) and (1.31) make reference to uniform plane waves. In Hence, the propagation direction of the incident wave is
conveniently selected to be b
i
the case of the incident wave on the scatterer, such a descrip- k ¼ bz0 . The incident wave
tion for the wave, i.e. the wave originated at the transmitting reaches the object of interest and induces currents on it,
antenna, is only valid if the scatter is in the far-field zone of which in turn reradiates a wave. This reradiated wave, as
the transmitting antenna. In the case of the scattered wave, shown, is referred to as the scattered wave. In the far-field
this wave admits a uniform plane wave formulation if the zone, the scattered wave is an outgoing spherical wave that in
point where the wave is considered is in the far field of the the area occupied by the receiving antenna can be
scatterer. In both cases, the waves in the far-field zone may be
considered spherical waves, which locally may be considered !s 0 0
y0 ¼ E x b
x0 þ E y b
E ¼ E xb hs þ E yb
vs : ð1:34Þ
as uniform plane waves. Considering a spherical coordinate
system centred in the scatterer and under the previous
The propagation direction of the scattered wave is there-
assumptions, the incident wave on the scatter can be 0
fore b
s
k ¼ bz0 . The scattering process is finally analysed in
expressed vectorially, in the far-field zone, as
terms of the plane of scattering, which is the plane that
2 3 2 3 contains both the incident and the scattering propagating
Ei Es vectors. The concepts of perpendicular and parallel wave
6 7 s 4 5
Ei ¼ 4 5, E ¼ ð1:32Þ components, or horizontal and vertical wave components,
Ei⊥ E s⊥ are defined with respect to the plane of scattering.
Consequently, and as indicated in (1.33), the perpendicular As indicated, the scattering matrix represents the scatter-
component of the wave admits to be considered as a horizon- ing process for particular incident and scattering directions,
x0 ¼ b i.e. b
k and b
i s
tal component, i.e. b hi, whereas the parallel one admits to k , respectively. In addition to that, it is also
0
be considered as a vertical one, i.e. by ¼b vi. In the case of the necessary to provide the horizontal and vertical unitary
scattered wave, the perpendicular component of the wave vectors, for the incident and the scattered waves, as they are
admits to be considered as a horizontal component, necessary to define the polarization states of the waves.
0
x0 ¼ b
i.e. b hs, whereas the parallel one admits to be considered In the most general case, which occurs in bistatic
0
y0 ¼ b
as a vertical one, i.e. b vs . configurations where the transmitter and receiver antennas
The incident and scattered waves in (1.33) and (1.34), are located in different positions, the scattering matrix
respectively, may be also vectorially expressed by means of contains up to seven independent parameters to characterize
the Jones vectors: the scatterer under observation. These parameters are the four
amplitudes and three relative phases; see (1.38). Indeed, any
" #
E ih Esh absolute phase in the scattering matrix can be neglected as it
E ¼
i
,E ¼s
ð1:35Þ does not affect the received power:
E iv Esv
" #
E sh ejkr e jϕhh jShh j jShv je jðϕhv ϕhh Þ Eih
In the definition of the previous two Jones vectors, the ¼ :
E sv r jSvh je jðϕvh ϕhh Þ jS je jðϕvv ϕhh Þ Eiv
coordinate systems defined previously are assumed. By using |fflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflffl} vv
|fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl}
Absolute phase term
this vector notation for the electromagnetic waves, it is pos- Relative scattering matrix
sible to relate the scattered wave with the one of the incident ð1:38Þ
wave by means of a 2 2 complex matrix:
As it was already highlighted previously, the scattering
ejkr i coefficients depend on the direction of the incident and the
Es ¼ SE : ð1:36Þ
r scattered waves. When considering the matrix S, the analysis
of this dependence is of extreme importance since it also
Here, r is the distance between the scatterer and the involves the definition of the polarization of the incident
receiving antenna, and k is the wavenumber of the and the scattered waves. Since (1.37) considers the polarized
illuminating wave. The coefficient 1/r represents the attenua- electromagnetic waves themselves, it is mandatory to assume
tion between the scatterer and the receiving antenna, which is a frame in which the polarization is defined. There exist two
produced by the spherical nature of the scattered wave. On principal conventions concerning the framework where the
the other hand, the phase factor represents the delay of the polarimetric scattering process is considered: Forward Scat-
travel of the wave from the scatterer to the antenna. Equation ter Alignment (FSA) and Backscatter Alignment (BSA); see
(1.36) may be written as Fig. 1.3. In both cases, the electric waves of the incident and
" # the scattered waves are expressed in local coordinate systems
E sh ejkr Shh Shv E ih centred on the transmitting and receiving antennas, respec-
¼ : ð1:37Þ
Esv r Svh Svv E iv tively. All coordinate systems are defined in terms of a global
coordinate system centred inside the target of interest.
The matrix S is referred to as scattering matrix, whereas The FSA convention (see Fig. 1.3), also called wave-
its components are known as complex scattering amplitudes. oriented since it is defined relative to the propagating wave,
The arrangement of the scattering matrix indicates how these is normally considered in bistatic problems, that is, in those
complex scattering amplitudes are measured. The first col- configurations in which the transmitter and the receiver are
umn of S is measured by transmitting a horizontally polarized not located at the same spatial position.
wave and employing two antennas horizontally and vertically The bistatic BSA convention framework (see Fig. 1.3) is
polarized to record the scattered waves. The second column defined, on the contrary, with respect to the radar antennas in
is measured in the same form, but transmitting a vertically accordance with the IEEE standard. The advantage of the
polarized wave. BSA convention is that for a monostatic configuration, also
It is worth mentioning that the scattering matrix called backscattering configuration, that is, when the trans-
characterizes the target under observation for a fixed imaging mitting and receiving antennas are collocated, the coordinate
geometry and frequency. In addition, the four elements must be systems of the two antennas coincide; see Fig. 1.4. This
measured at the same time, especially in those situations where configuration is preferred in the radar polarimetry commu-
the scatterer is not static or fixed. If they are not measured at the nity. In the monostatic case, the scattering matrix in the FSA
same time, the coherency between the elements may be lost as convention, SFSA, can be related to the same matrix referenced
the different elements may refer to a different scatterer. to the monostatic BSA convention SBSA as follows:
^z ^z
vî vî
v^s
^k k^s ^k
hî hî k^s
i i
i s h^s i s
h^s
v^s
i y^ i y^
s s
^x ^x
(a) (b)
Fig. 1.3 (a) FSA and (b) BSA conventions

1 0 The main consequence of the previous equation is that in
SBSA ¼ SFSA : ð1:39Þ the backscattering direction, a given scatterer is no longer
0 1
characterized by seven independent parameters, but by five.
These are three amplitudes, two relative phases, and one
As it has been mentioned previously, in the radar polarim- additional absolute phase.
etry community, the monostatic BSA convention (backscat- A central parameter when considering the scattering pro-
tering) is considered as the framework to characterize the cess occurring at a given scatterer consists of the scattered
scattering process. The reason to select this configuration is power. For single-polarization systems, the scattered power is
due to the fact that the majority of the existing polarimetric determined by means of the radar cross section or the scatter-
radar systems operate with the same antenna for transmission ing coefficient. Nevertheless, a polarimetric radar has to be
and reception. One important property of this configuration, considered as a multichannel system. Consequently, in order
for reciprocal targets, is reciprocity, which states that to determine the scattered power, it is necessary to consider
all the data channels, that is, all the elements of the scattering
ShvBSA ¼ SvhBSA , ð1:40Þ matrix. The total scattered power, in the case of a polarimetric
radar system, is known as Span, being defined in the most
ShvFSA ¼ SvhFSA : ð1:41Þ general case as

Then, the formalization of the scattering process given by SPAN ðSÞ ¼ trace SST
(1.37), in the monostatic case under the BSA convention, ¼ jShh j2 þ jShv j2 þ jShv j2 þ jSvv j2 : ð1:44Þ
reduces to
" # In the backscattering case, due to the reciprocity theorem,

E sh ejkr Shh Shv E ih the Span reduces to
¼ : ð1:42Þ
Esv r Shv Svv E iv
SPAN ðSÞ ¼ jShh j2 þ 2jShv j2 þ jSvv j2 : ð1:45Þ
In the same sense, Eq. (1.38) takes the form
The main property of the Span is that it is polarimetrically
jkr
" #
invariable, that is, it does not depend on the polarization basis
E sh e e jϕhh
jShh j jShv je jðϕhv ϕhh Þ Eih
¼ : employed to describe the polarization of the electromagnetic
Esv r jShv je jðϕhv ϕhh Þ jSvv je jðϕvv ϕhh Þ Eiv
|fflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflffl} |fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl}
Absolute phase term
waves.
Relative scattering matrix
ð1:43Þ
Fig. 1.4 (a) FSA and (b) BSA a b

conventions in the
backscattering case
When the radar wave reaches a scatterer, part of the response is to decompose the original scattering matrix into
incident energy is reflected back to the system. If the incident the response of canonical mechanisms. With this idea in
wave is monochromatic, the target is unchanging and the mind, but also with the objective to introduce a new
radar-target aspect angle is constant, the scattered wave will formulism to extract physical information, it is possible to
be also monochromatic and completely polarized. Therefore, transform the scattering matrix into a scattering vector that
both the incident and the scattered waves can be presents a clearer physical interpretation.
characterized by their corresponding Jones vectors, and the The construction of a target vector k is performed through
scattering process can be characterized by the scattering the vectorization of the scattering matrix:
matrix. These targets are referred to as point targets, single
targets or deterministic targets, as when a radar images this 1
k ¼ V ðSÞ ¼ traceðSΨÞ: ð1:46Þ
type of scatterers, the scattered wave in the far-field zone 2
appears to be originated by a single point. In other words, the
target response is not contaminated by additional spurious, so Ψ is a set of 2 2 complex basis matrices which are
it is possible to infer some information about the target from constructed as an orthonormal set under a Hermitian inner
the single values of the scattering matrix. Table 1.6 shows the product. The interpretation of the target vector k depends on
scattering matrix, expressed in the linear polarization basis, the selected basis Ψ. The most common matrix bases
for some canonical bodies. These are referred to as canonical employed in the context of the radar polarimetry are the
due to the simplicity of their scattering matrix. so-called lexicographic ordering basis and the Pauli basis.
The lexicographic ordering basis consists of the straightfor-
1.1.2.2 Scattering Polarimetry Descriptors ward lexicographic ordering of the elements of the scattering
The scattering matrix introduced in the previous section is matrix:
indeed a scattering polarimetry descriptor that could be also
included in this section. Nevertheless, it merits a separate 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Ψl ¼ 2 ,2 ,2 ,2 :
section as this matrix represents the best vehicle to introduce 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
the description of the scattering process when polarimetry is ð1:47Þ
concerned, as the scattering matrix relates the Jones vectors

of the involved electromagnetic waves. Section 1.1.1.1 The Pauli basis consists of the set of Pauli spin matrices
introduced additional descriptors for the polarization state usually employed in quantum mechanics:
of an electromagnetic wave. As a consequence, some addi-

tional descriptors for the scattering process shall be pffiffiffi 1 0 pffiffiffi 1 0 pffiffiffi 0 1 pffiffiffi 0 j
introduced in the following. Ψp ¼ 2 , 2 , 2 , 2 :
0 1 0 1 1 0 j 0
The 2 2 complex scattering matrix, as indicated,
ð1:48Þ
describes the scattering matrix of a given target. Table 1.6
presented several examples for some simple or canonical
Note that the multiplying factor in both bases is necessary
scatterers. Nevertheless, a real target presents always a com-
in order to keep the total scattered power constant, i.e. trace
plex scattering response as a consequence of its complex
(SST).
geometrical structure and its reflectivity properties. Conse-
The selection of the basis to vectorize the scattering matrix
quently, the interpretation of this response is obscure. As it
depends on the final purpose of the vectorization itself. When
shall be presented later on, a possible solution to interpret this
n o
Table 1.6 Scattering matrix for canonical bodies in the linear polarization basis b
h, b
v
Canonical body Diagram Scattering matrix

Sphere a
1 0
2
0 1

Dihedral corner reflector kab
1 0
π
0 1

Trihedral corner reflector 1 0
pklffiffiffiffi
2
12π 0 1

Short thin cylinder k 2 l3 cos 2 α sin α cos α
3ð ln ð4laÞ1Þ sin α cos α sin 2 α

Left-handed helix 1
1 j
2
j 1

Right-handed helix 1
1 j
2
j 1
the objective is to study the statistical behaviour of the SAR In the backscattering case, under the BSA convention, the
data or the radar measurement, it is more convenient to reciprocity property applies. Hence, the previous target
consider the lexicographic basis due to its simplicity, as it vectors admit the following simplification:
shall be extended in the next sections. Nevertheless, when the
2 3 2 3
objective is the physical interpretation of the scattering Shh Shh þ Svv
6 p ffiffi
ffi 7 1 6 7
matrix, it is more convenient to consider the Pauli basis. kl ¼ 4 2Shv 5, kp ¼ pffiffiffi 4 Shh Svv 5 ð1:51Þ
Assuming the Pauli decomposition basis, an arbitrary 2 2 2
Svv 2Shv
scattering matrix may be written in the following terms:
pffiffiffi
The different 2 and 2 factors that appear in the definition
aþb c jd
S¼ of the target vectors are necessary in order to maintain the
c þ jd a b total scattered power or Span. As it is evident, the Span must

1 0 1 0 0 1 be constant and independent from the choice of the basis in
¼a þb þc
0 1 0 1 1 0 which the scattering matrix is decomposed. This is known as
total power invariance.
0 j
þd : ð1:49Þ The concept of target vector, obtained as a vectorization of
j 0 the scattering matrix, makes it possible to obtain a new
formulation to describe the information contained in the
It is worth noting that the elements a, b, c and d are scattering matrix by means of the outer product of the target
complex. If one considers the decomposition of the scattering vector with its conjugate transpose, or adjoint vector.
matrix as performed in (1.49), it is possible to identify the For a vectorization of the scattering matrix through the
four elements of the Pauli basis with some of the scattering lexicographic basis, in the most general case, the outer prod-
matrices of canonical bodies presented in Table 1.6. There- uct of the target vector with its transpose conjugate kl kT l
fore, the elements a, b, c and d, i.e. the elements of the target leads to the matrix:
vector k, represent the contribution of every canonical mech-
anism to the final scattering mechanism. Therefore, the fol- 2 3
jShh j2 Shh Shv Shh Svh Shh Svv
lowing interpretation is possible: 6 7
6 Shv Shh jShv j2 Shv Svh Shv Svv 7
kl kT ¼6
6
7:
7 ð1:52Þ
• a corresponds to the single scattering from a sphere or l
4 Svh Shh Svh Shv jSvh j2 Svh Svv 5
plane surface.
Svv Shh Svv Shv Svv Svh jSvv j2
• b corresponds to dihedral scattering.
• c corresponds to dihedral scattering with a relative orien-
Due to a language abuse, the matrix kl kT is sometimes
tation of π/4 rad in the line of sight. l
referred to as covariance matrix and represented by C, but as
• d corresponds to anti-symmetric, helix-type scattering
it will be shown in Sect. 1.1.2.4, the covariance matrix
mechanisms that transform the incident wave into its
presents a different definition. It is worth to observe that
orthogonal circular polarization state (helix related).
(1.52) is a 4 4, complex, Hermitian matrix. The construc-
tion of this matrix, through the outer product of the vector kl
All in all, what has been performed in (1.49) is a target
and its transpose conjugate, makes the matrix kl kT l have a
decomposition. This concept shall be analysed in depth in the
rank equal to 1. Consequently, kl kT l presents exactly the
next. It is also worth to notice that the different components
same information as the scattering matrix, and hence it may
of the Pauli basis, or scattering components, are orthogonal.

have up to seven independent parameters. In the case of the
This means that from a practical point of view, the separation
backscattering direction under the BSA convention, and due
indicated in (1.49) is possible without ambiguities.
to the fact that the reciprocity relation applies, kl kT
l can be
Finally, the explicit expressions of the target vector in the
written, considering (1.51), as
lexicographic and Pauli decomposition bases, considering the
expression of the scattering matrix, in the most general case 2 pffiffiffi 3
are: jShh j2 2Shh Shv Shh Svv
6 pffiffiffi pffiffiffi 7
kl kT ¼ 4 2Shv Shh jShv j2 2Shv Svv 5: ð1:53Þ
2 3 2 3 l
pffiffiffi
Shh Shh þ Svv Svv Shh 2Svv Shv jSvv j 2
6S 7 6 S S 7
6 hv 7 1 6 hh vv 7
kl ¼ 6 7, kp ¼ pffiffiffi 6 7 ð1:50Þ
4 Svh 5 2 4 Shv þ Svh 5 As in the previous case, the kl kT l matrix presents a rank
Svv jðShv Svh Þ equal to 1 as it is obtained as the outer product of a vector and
its transpose conjugate. Nevertheless, in this case, the covari- language abuse, this matrix is sometimes referred to as coher-
ance matrix may present up to five independent parameters, ency matrix and represented by T, but as it will be shown in
that is, the same number of independent parameters as the Sect. 1.1.2.4, the coherency matrix presents a different defi-
scattering matrix from which it derives. nition. Under the most general imaging configuration, con-
A similar procedure can be applied when the scattering sidering (1.65), the coherency matrix can be written as
matrix is obtained considering the Pauli basis. In this case,
the matrix is obtained from the outer product kp kT
p . Due to a
2 3
jShh þ Svv j2 ðShh þ Svv ÞðShh Svv Þ ðShh þ Svv ÞðShv þ Svh Þ ðShh þ Svv Þð jðShv Svh ÞÞ
6 ðShh Svv ÞðShh þ Svv Þ jShh Svv j2 ðShh Svv ÞðShv þ Svh Þ ðShh Svv Þð jðShv Svh ÞÞ 7
6 7
p ¼6
kp kT 7
:
4 ðShv þ Svh ÞðShh þ Svv Þ ðShv þ Svh ÞðShh Svv Þ jShv þ Svh j2 ðShv þ Svh Þð jðShv Svh ÞÞ 5
jðShv Svh ÞðShh þ Svv Þ jðShv Svh ÞðShh Svv Þ jðShv Svh ÞðShv þ Svh Þ jShv Svh j2
ð1:54Þ
As in the case of kl kT T

l , kp kp presents a rank equal to considered under the BSA convention, the coherency matrix
1, and therefore, it may present up to seven independent reduces to
parameters. Finally, if the backscattering direction is
2 3
jShh þ Svv j2 ðShh þ Svv ÞðShh Svv Þ 2ðShh þ Svv ÞShv
6 7
p ¼ 4 ðShh Svv ÞðShh þ Svv Þ
kp kT jShh Svv j2 2ðShh Svv ÞShv 5: ð1:55Þ

2Shv ðShh þ Svv Þ 2Shv ðShh Svv Þ 4jShv j 2
2 3 2 3
1 0 1 1 1 0
Again, the previous matrix presents a rank equal to 1 and 16 7 6 pffiffiffi 7
may have up to five independent parameters. kp kT ¼ 41 0 1 5kl kT 4 0 0 2 5: ð1:57Þ
p 2 pffiffiffi l
The lexicographic and the Pauli target vector are just a 0 2 0 1 1 0
different transformation of the scattering matrix into a vector.
Hence, the covariance and coherency matrices are related by As it may be seen from all this section, the matrices kl kT
l
the following unitary transformation in the most general and kp kTp contain the same information as the scattering
configuration: matrix, that is, they are rank 1 matrices. The necessity to
introduce these matrices is that they will allow to define the
1
p ¼
kp kT covariance and coherency matrices.
2
2 3 2 3 The complex scattering matrix S is able to describe a
1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 single physical scattering process, as well as kl kT and
l
61 1 7 6 1 j 7
6 0 0 7 T 6 0 0 7 kp kT
p . All these descriptors are based on a wave representa-
6 7kl kl 6 7:
40 1 1 0 5 40 0 1 j 5 tion of the data, which depend on the absolute phase from the
0 j j 0 1 1 0 0 scatterer. On the contrary, a power representation of the
ð1:56Þ scattering process eliminates this dependence, as power
parameters become incoherently additive parameters. In the
In the case of the backscattering direction under the BSA most general case, assuming the BSA convention, one may
convention, the previous transformation reduces to define the 4 4 Kennaugh matrix as follows:
O
K ¼ A S S A1 ð1:58Þ 1.1.2.3 Partial Scattering Polarimetry
As indicated in Sect. 1.1.1.2, radar polarimetry is concerned
with two types of waves. The first type is monochromatic,
where totally polarized electromagnetic waves where the polariza-
2 3 tion state is perfectly represented by the Jones vectors. Con-
1 0 0 1 sequently, the scattering process can be completely
61 1 7
6 0 0 7 represented by any of the scattering polarimetry descriptors
A¼6 7: ð1:59Þ
40 1 1 0 5 detailed in the previous section, and especially the scattering
0 j j 0 matrix. This situation appears when the radar transmits a
perfectly monochromatic wave and this wave reaches an
The Kennaugh matrix can be written in the following unchanging scatterer, resulting in a perfectly polarized
form: scattered wave. As mentioned, these targets are referred to
as point targets or coherent targets. The most important point
2 3 to be considered when coherent scattering is addressed is to
A0 þ B0 Cψ Hψ Fψ
6 C A0 þ Bψ 7 determine the number of independent parameters necessary
6 ψ Eψ Gψ 7
K¼6 7 to represent the scattering process. That is, to determine the
4 Hψ Eψ A0 Bψ Dψ 5 number of independent parameters necessary to represent the
Fψ Gψ Dψ A0 þ B0 operator able to characterize the change of the polarization
ð1:60Þ state of the scattered wave with respect to the incident wave
that occurs in the scattering process. In a monostatic configu-
where ration, the scattering operator describing the scattering,
i.e. any of the matrix operators indicated in Sections 1.1.2.1
1 and 1.1.2.2, may present up to five independent parameters.
A0 ¼ jShh þ Svv j2
4 In the bistatic case, these descriptors may present up to seven
1 independent parameters.
B0 ¼ jShh Svv j2 þ jShv j2
4 The situation changes when the scattering properties of the
1
Bψ ¼ jShh Svv j2 jShv j2 target being imaged by the radar system change in time, as it
4 would be the case for a forest being affected by the wind
1
C ψ ¼ jShh Svv j2 : ð1:61Þ conditions or, for instance, when the target presents more
2
than one scattering centre (a point at which the incident wave
Dψ ¼ ℑ Shh Svv
can be considered to be reflected). Under this situation,
E ψ ¼ ℜ Shv ðShh Svv Þ although the radar system transmits a perfectly polarized
F ψ ¼ ℑ Shv ðShh Svv Þ wave, the wave scattered by the scatterer is partially
Gψ ¼ ℜ Shv ðShh þ Svv Þ polarized. A scatterer of this category is normally referred
H ψ ¼ ℑ Shv ðShh þ Svv Þ to as distributed scatterer, depolarizing scatterer or an inco-
herent scattering target. The change of the polarization state
In the previous definition, the sub-index ψ indicates that of the scattered wave makes not possible to use the scattering
the different parameters are roll angle dependent, descriptors presented in Sects. 1.1.2.1 and 1.1.2.2 to describe
corresponding to the target rotation along the line of sight. the scattering process, as these descriptors are not able to
As detailed in Sect. 1.1.2.1, the scattering matrix relates describe the variation of the polarization state of the
the scattered wave to the incident Jones vector. The scattered wave.
Kennaugh matrix is related to the associated Stokes vectors In the case of partially polarized waves, the description of
defined in Sect. 1.1.1.1. In the forward scattering case, where the polarization state must be addressed through polarization
S is represented in the FSA coordinate formulation, this descriptors relying on the second-order moments of the elec-
matrix is named the 4 4 Mueller matrix and is calculated by tromagnetic wave. If a wave is decomposed into two orthog-
onal components in the plane perpendicular to the
O propagation direction, these second-order moments refer to
M¼A S S A1 : ð1:62Þ the power of each orthogonal component and to the correla-
tion between them. This information is perfectly represented
The main difference of K and M, with respect to kl kT
l and by the vector and the wave coherency matrix or the Stokes
T
kp kp , is that the Kennaugh and the Mueller matrices are real vector. In the case of the description of the scattering process,
matrices, whereas the covariance and coherency matrices are this information can be perfectly represented by the covari-
complex. ance and coherency matrices as the mean values of these
matrices are not zero.
1.1.2.4 Change of Polarization Basis Then, the incident and the scattered waves transformed in
The scattering properties of a given scatterer, as the new basis may be considered:
demonstrated, are contained within the scattering matrix S,
which, as shown previously, is measured in a particular Ei 0 0 ¼ U bu,bu ! b
0
u ,b
0 Ei , ð1:66Þ
bu ,bu⊥ ⊥ u⊥ bu,bu⊥
polarization basis. Since there exist an infinite number of
orthonormal polarization bases, the question rising at this
Es ¼ U bb 0 0 Es : ð1:67Þ
! b
u ,b
0 0
point is whether it is possible or not to infer the polarimetric bu ,bu⊥ u, u⊥ u⊥ bu,bu⊥
properties of the given target in any polarization basis from
the response measured at a particular basis. This question In order to apply the transformation basis procedure to the
presents an affirmative answer. The possibility to synthesize scattered waves Es , we need to consider that it
any polarimetric response of a given target from its measure- bu,bu⊥
ment in a particular orthonormal basis represents the most propagates in the opposite direction as the incident wave
Ei . The transformation indicated by (1.64) assumes
important property of polarimetric systems in comparison bu,bu⊥
with single-polarization systems. The most important conse- that the incident and the scattered waves propagate in oppo-
quence of this process is that the amount of information about site directions, but (1.66) and (1.67) assume that both waves
a given scatterer can be increased, allowing a better charac- propagate in the same direction. Consequently it is necessary
terization and study. This polarization synthesis process is to consider the transformation indicated by (1.63) in (1.67).
based on the concept of change of polarization basis As a result, the transformation basis procedure applies to the
presented in Sect. 1.1.1.3. scattered wave as follows:
Before describing the polarization synthesis process in the
backscattering direction, it is necessary to analyse the scatter- Es 0 0 ¼ U 0 0 Es ð1:68Þ
ing process given by (1.37) with respect to the direction of bu ,bu⊥ bu,bu⊥ ! b
u ,b
u⊥ bu,bu⊥
propagation of the incident and the scattered waves. It must
be noticed that the incident wave propagates in the direction where now the wave in (1.68) is assumed to propagate in
given by the unitary vector b
i opposite direction with respect to the incident wave in (1.66).
k , whereas the scattered one
Now, it is possible to introduce (1.66) and (1.68) in (1.64):
propagates in the opposite direction, given by b
i
k . Conse-
quently, this difference in the propagation direction must be
U Es ¼S bb U b0 b0 Ei :
! b
u,b
0 0 0 0 0 0
taken into account when defining the polarization state of the bu ,bu⊥ ! b
u,b
u⊥ bu ,bu⊥ u, u⊥ u , u⊥ u⊥ bu ,bu⊥
wave. Given a Jones vector propagating in the direction b k, the ð1:69Þ
Jones vector of a wave presenting the same polarization state
but which propagates in the direction b k is obtained as As the transformation matrix U is unitary, i.e. U1 ¼ UT,

b
k ! b
k , E b
k ¼ E b
k ð1:63Þ Es ¼UT S bb U b0 b0 Ei
! b
u,b
0 0 0 0 0 0
bu ,bu⊥ bu ,bu⊥ ! b
u,b
u⊥ u, u⊥ u , u⊥ u⊥ bu ,bu⊥
ð1:70Þ
where, as mentioned previously, the BSA convention is
considered. Under this assumption, the scattering matrix is from where it can be clearly identified the following identity
referred to as the coordinate system centred in the transmit-
ting/receiving system. Consider a polarimetric radar system 1
which transmits the electromagnetic waves in the following S bu0 ,bu0 ¼ U 0 0 S bu,bu U bu0 ,bu0 ! b
u,b
:
bu ,bu⊥ ! b
u,b
u⊥ ⊥ u⊥
orthonormal basis fb u, b
u⊥ g. In this particular basis, the inci- ⊥ ⊥
dent and scattered waves are related by the scattering matrix ð1:71Þ
as follows:
The transformation expressed in (1.71) receives the name
E s
¼ S bb E :
i
ð1:64Þ of con-similarity transformation. This transformation allows
bu,bu⊥ u, u⊥ bu,bu⊥ to synthesize the scattering matrix in an arbitrary basis
u0 , b
b u0⊥ from its measure in the basis fb
u, b
u⊥ g.
As shown in Sect. 1.1.1.3, given the Jones vector
measured in a particular basis, for instance, fb u, b
u⊥ g , it is 1.1.2.5 Scatterers Characterization by Single, Dual,
possible to derive it in any other polarization basis bu0 , b
u0⊥ , Compact and Full Polarimetry
which may be rewritten as follows: The main objective behind the use of polarimetric diversity,
also known as full polarimetry, when observing a particular
E bu0 ,bu0 ¼ U bu,bu ! b
u ,b
0
u⊥
0 E bu,bu : ð1:65Þ scatterer is that this type of diversity allows a far more
⊥ ⊥ ⊥
complete characterization of the scatterer than the characteri- contains the parameters concerning the receiving system: the
zation that could be obtained without polarimetric sensitivity, effective aperture of the receiving antenna Ar and the distance
or simply single-polarization measurements. Although this between the target and the receiving system rr. The last term
improved characterization, if compared with single- in (1.72), i.e. σ, determines the effects of the scatterer of
polarization data, the use of polarimetric diversity comes at interest on the balance of powers established by the radar
a price, as the average transmitted power must be doubled equation. Since (1.73) is a power density, i.e. power per unit
and the swath width halved. In addition, a fully polarimetric area, and (1.74) is dimensionless, the parameter σ has units of
SAR is technologically more complex than a single- area. Consequently, σ consists of an effective area which
polarization SAR system. In order to understand the differ- characterizes the scatterer. This parameter determines which
ence between these two philosophies and the improvement in amount of power is intercepted from (1.73) by the scatterer
the characterization of a scatterer provided by polarimetry, it and reradiated. This reradiated power is finally intercepted by
is necessary to introduce two important concepts, since they the receiving system according to the distance rt. An impor-
will determine the way in which a target shall be tant fact which arises at this point is the way the scatterer
characterized. It may happen the scatterer of interest to be reradiates the intercepted power in a given direction of the
smaller than the coverage of the radar system. In this situa- space. In order to be independent of this property, the radar
tion, we consider the scatterer as an isolated scatterer, and cross section shall be referenced to an idealized isotropic
from a point of view of power exchange, this target is scatterer. Thus, the radar cross section of an object is the
characterized by the so-called radar cross section. Neverthe- cross section of an equivalent isotropic scatterer that
less, we can find situations in which the scatterer of interest is generates the same scattered power density as the object in
significantly larger than the coverage provided by the radar the observed direction:
system. In these occasions, it is more convenient to charac-
terize the target independently of its extent. Hence, in these !s 2
E
situations, the target is described by the so-called scattering σ ¼ 4πr 2 ¼ 4π jSj2 ð1:75Þ
2
coefficient. !i
E
The most fundamental form to describe the interaction of
an electromagnetic wave with a given scatterer is the
so-called radar equation. This equation establishes the rela- ! 2
where E represents the intensity of the electromagnetic
tion between the power the scatterer intercepts from the
incident electromagnetic wave and the power reradiated by wave and S is the complex scattering amplitude of the object.
the same scatterer in the form of the scattered wave. The radar The final value of σ is a function of a large number of
equation presents the following form: parameters which are difficult to consider individually: the
wave frequency, the wave polarization, the imaging geome-
Pt Gt Ar try or the geometrical structure and the dielectric properties of
Pr ¼ σ ð1:72Þ
4πr 2t 4πr 2r the scatterer. Then, the radar cross section σ is able to char-
acterize the target being imaged for a particular frequency
where Pr represents the power detected at the receiving and imaging system configuration.
system. The term The radar equation, as given by (1.72), is valid for those
cases in which the scatterer of interest is smaller than the
Pt Gt radar coverage, that is, a point target or point scatterer. For
ð1:73Þ
4πr 2t
those targets presenting an extent larger than the radar cover-

age, we need a different model to represent the scatterer. In
is determined by the incident wave, and it consists of its these situations, a scatterer is represented as an infinite col-
power density expressed in terms of the properties of the lection of statistically identical point scatterers. The resulting
!s
transmitting system. The different terms in (1.73) are the scattered wave E results from the coherent addition of the
transmitted power Pt, the antenna gain Gt and the distance scattered waves from every one of the independent scatterers
between the system and the target rt. On the contrary, the which model the extended scatterer. In order to express the
term scattering properties of the extended target independently of
its area extent, we consider every elementary target as being
Ar described by a differential radar cross section dσ. In order to
ð1:74Þ
4πr 2r separate the effects of the target extent, we consider dσ as the
product of the averaged radar cross section per unit area

σ 0 and the differential area occupied by the target ds. Then, !s 2
E Eqp
the differential power received by the systems due to an E σ qp 4πr 2r
elementary scatterer can be written as σ 0qp ¼ ¼ 2
: ð1:80Þ
A0 A0 !i
Eqp
PG A
dPr ¼ t 2t σ 0 ds r 2 : ð1:76Þ
4πr t 4πr r
As it has been shown, a given target of interest can be
characterized by means of the radar cross section or the
Hence, to find the total power received from the extended
scattering coefficient depending on the nature of the scatterer
target, we need to integrate over the illuminated area A0:
itself; see (1.75) and (1.78). Additionally, in (1.79) and
ZZ (1.80), it has been shown that these two coefficients depend
Pt Gt 0 Ar
Pr ¼ σ ds: ð1:77Þ also on the polarization of the incident and the scattered
4πr 2t 4πr 2r
A0 electromagnetic waves. A closer look to these expressions
reveals that these two real coefficients depend on the polari-
It must be noted that the radar equation at (1.72) represents zation of the electromagnetic waves only through the power
a deterministic problem, whereas (1.77) considers a statistical associated with them. Thus, they do not exploit, explicitly,
problem. Eq. (1.77) represents the average power returned the vectorial nature of polarized electromagnetic waves. A
from the extended target. Hence, the radar cross section per SAR system that measures σ or σ 0 is usually referred to as
unit area σ 0, or simply scattering coefficient, is the ratio of the single-polarization SAR systems as, normally, the same
statistically averaged scattered power density to the average polarization is employed for transmission and for reception.
incident power density over the surface of the sphere of In this case, the products delivered by the SAR system are
radius rr: real SAR images containing the information of σ or σ 0.
In order to take advantage of the polarization of the elec-

!s 2 tromagnetic waves, that is, their vectorial nature, the scatter-
E E ing process at the scatterer of interest must be considered as a
E fσ g 4πr 2r
σ0 ¼ ¼ 2
: ð1:78Þ function of the electromagnetic waves themselves. In Sect.
A0 A0 !i
E 1.1.1.1, it was shown that the polarization of a plane, mono-
chromatic, electric wave could be represented by the
so-called Jones vector. Additionally, a set of two orthogonal
The scattering coefficient σ 0 is a dimensionless parameter.
Jones vectors form a polarization basis, in which any polari-
As in the case of the radar cross section, the scattering
zation state of a given electromagnetic wave can be
coefficient is employed to characterize the scattered being
expressed. Therefore, given the Jones vectors of the incident
imaged by the radar. This characterization is for a particular
and the scattered waves, Ei and Es , respectively, the scatter-
frequency f, polarization of the incident and scattered waves
ing process occurring at the target of interest is represented by
and incident and scattering directions.
the scattering matrix S. In contraposition to a single-polari-
As it has been shown, the characterization of a given
zation SAR system, a fully polarimetric SAR system
scatterer by means of the radar cross section σ or the scatter-
measures the complete scattering matrix S. Therefore, the
ing coefficient σ 0 depends also on the polarization of the
!i
product delivered by this type of SAR systems corresponds
incident wave E . As one can observe in (1.75) and (1.78), to the 2 2 complex scattering matrix and not individual real
these two coefficients are expressed as a function of the SAR images.
intensity of the incident and scattered waves. Consequently, As it can be observed, the polarimetric sensitivity of a
σ and σ 0 shall be only sensitive to the polarization of the measurement ranges from a complete absence of polarimetric
incident waves through the effects the polarization has over sensitivity in the case of single-polarization SAR systems to
the power of the related electromagnetic waves. Hence, if we a complete sensitivity in the case of fully polarimetric SAR
denote by p the polarization of the incident wave and by q the systems. Polarimetric sensitivity comes to a price of a more
polarization of the scattered wave, we can define the follow- complex system that implies, on the one hand, a heavier
ing polarization-dependent radar cross section and scattering system and, on the other hand, the need to transmit a larger
coefficient, respectively: power. In addition, and due to the need to double the pulse
repetition frequency to accommodate two polarizations in
!s 2
transmission, the radar swath is also reduced. Nevertheless,
Eqp 2
σ qp ¼ 4πr 2 ¼ 4π Sqp , ð1:79Þ between both architectures, there exist other polarimetric
2
!i radar configurations with may soften the previous limitations
Eqp
but at the cost of reducing the amount of acquired
information.
A single-polarization or mono-polarization SAR system information that can be extracted from the real SAR images,
is composed of one transmission and one reception chain that proportional to σ or σ 0, or their different combinations. Nev-
operate at a fixed polarization. In most of the cases, both ertheless, this limitation is overcome by allowing two simul-
chains operate at the same polarization providing a co-pol or taneous and coherent reception channels operating at
co-polarized channel. In the particular case of the linear orthogonal polarizations, making it possible to measure the
polarization basis, these channels would correspond to σ hh relative phase between them. The coherent nature of the
or σ 0hh and σ vv or σ 0vv for the horizontal and the vertical receiving channels allows measuring the different elements
polarization states, respectively. As indicated, these simple of the covariance or coherency matrix. The first option that
imaging radars deliver real SAR images, proportional to σ or may be considered is to assume a fixed polarization in trans-
σ 0, as products. One possibility to increase the amount of mission and orthogonal polarizations in reception. In the case
information is to consider a dual-polarized radar by including of the transmission channel, the circular polarization and the
a second reception chain in the system, in such a way that it 45 linear polarizations have been proposed, whereas for
transmits in one polarization, for instance, h, and it receives reception the horizontal and vertical linear polarizations are
simultaneously on the same polarization h and also on the assumed. This type of systems are collectively known as
orthogonal one v, leading to one co-pol and the so-called compact polarized systems as, although they allow to mea-
co-polarized and the cross-polarized channels, respectively. sure some of the elements of the covariance and coherency
A different alternative for a dual-polarized system is to matrix, they do not allow to measure the complete matrices.
consider a transmission chain that alternates between Finally, by allowing the system to transmit alternatively
polarizations and a single reception chain. In all these cases, between orthogonal polarizations and to receive coherently
the polarimetric system provides images proportional to the at the same two orthogonal polarizations, a system like this is
radar brightness. able to measure coherently the scattering matrix and to pro-
All the previous SAR systems present the limitation that duce the covariance and coherency matrices. In the case of a
the information that may be retrieved is restricted to the bistatic configuration, without any type of assumption, these
Fig. 1.5 The family of polarization diversity and polarimetric imaging radars. (Courtesy of Dr. R. K. Raney)
will be 4 4 complex matrices, whereas in the case of a modelled as a two-dimensional low-pass filter, given by
monostatic configuration, these will be 3 3 complex matri- (1.81), applied to the scene’s complex reflectivity σ s(x, r)
ces. Figure 1.5 details the complete hierarchy of polarimetric (Curlander and McDonough 1991):
SAR systems.
Z1 Z1
Sðx, r Þ ¼ σ s ðx0 , r 0 Þhðx x0 , r r 0 Þdx0 dr 0 : ð1:82Þ
1.2 SAR Data Statistical Description 1 1
and Speckle Noise Filtering
Since the spatial resolutions of the SAR impulse response,
Most of geophysical media, for instance, rough surfaces, δx and δr, are not zero, it is possible to introduce the concept
vegetation, ice, snow, etc., have a very complex structure of resolution cell as the area given by δx δr . Qualitatively,
and composition. Consequently, the knowledge of the exact in the absence of signal re-sampling, the information
scattered electromagnetic wave, when illuminated by an inci- contained by an image pixel is basically determined by the
dent wave, is only possible if a complete description of the average complex reflectivity σ s(x, r) within this
scene was available. This type of description of the scatterers resolution cell.
is unattainable for practical applications. The alternative, The resolution cell dimensions, δx and δr, are larger than
hence, is to describe them in a statistical form. Such scatters the wavelength of the illuminating electromagnetic wave λ.
are named, consequently, as distributed or partial scatterers As a consequence, the resulting scattered wave is due to an
(Ulaby et al. 1986a, b). elaborated scattering process. In order to arrive to a tractable
SAR systems are mainly employed for natural scenes mathematical model of the SAR image S(x, r), it is conve-
observation. Owing to the complexity of these scatterers, nient to find an approximation for the scattering process
the scattered wave has also a complex behaviour. Hence, within the resolution cell. The most common simplification
the scattering process itself needs to be analysed stochasti- is the Born approximation or simple scattering approximation
cally. Most of the techniques focused on solving the scattered (Ulaby et al. 1986a). Under it, first, the distributed scatterer is
wave problem trying to find, hence, the statistical moments of considered to be composed of a set of discrete scatterers
the scattered wave as a function of the incident wave characterized by a deterministic response. This scatterer
properties, as well as the scatterer features. model might be reasonable for those cases in which the
In order to derive a stochastic model for the observed SAR discrete scatterer description is valid, for instance, scattering
images in the case of distributed scatterers, it is necessary to from raindrops or vegetation-covered surfaces having leaves
consider a model for the SAR imaging process, a model for small compared with the wavelength. On the contrary, this
the scattering process and a model for the distributed scatter assumption is not valid for continuous scatterers. In these
being imaged. cases, it is helpful to apply the concept of effective scattering
The SAR imaging process is divided into two main pro- centre (Ulaby et al. 1986a), in which the continuous scatterer
cesses. The former consists of the acquisition of the scattered is analysed in a discrete way, e.g. the facet model for surface
data, as a result of the illuminating wave, whereas the latter scattering (Ulaby et al. 1986a; Beckmann and Spizzichino
comprises the focusing process. The second, which is in 1987). In a second step, the scattered wave from the resolu-
charge of collecting all the contributions of a particular tion cell is supposed to be the linear coherent combination of
scatterer focusing it as good as possible, tries to remove the the individual scattered waves of each one of the discrete
effects of the acquisition process. The SAR impulse scatters within the cell. The main limitation of the Born
response, or SAR system model, embracing the acquisition, approximation is that it excludes attenuation or multiple
as well as the focusing processes, can be assumed to be a scattering in the process.
rectangular low-pass filter (Curlander and McDonough Assuming the scattered wave from any distributed
1991): scatterer to be originated by a set of discrete sources, (1.82)
can be considered in its discrete form:

πx πr
hðx, r Þ / sinc sinc : ð1:81Þ
δx δr X
N
Sðx, r Þ ¼ σ s ðxk , r k Þhðx xk , r r k Þ ð1:83Þ
k¼1
In the previous equation, x and r indicate the azimuth and
slant-range (simply called range in the following)
where the sub-index k refers to each particular discrete
dimensions of the SAR image, respectively, whereas δx and
scatterer in the resolution cell and N is the total number of
δr indicate the spatial resolutions in the same spatial
these scatterers embraced by the response of the SAR system
dimensions. Finally, a SAR image, i.e. S(x, r), may be
h(x, r). Equation (1.83) can be rewritten by using
pffiffiffiffiffi
σ s ð xk , r k Þ ¼ σ k exp jθ0sk , ð1:84Þ • The amplitude Ak and the phase θsk of the k-th scattered
wave are statistically independent of each other and from
the amplitudes and phases of all other elementary waves.
hðx xk , r r k Þ ¼ hk exp ð jφk Þ, ð1:85Þ This fact states that the discrete scatterers are uncorrelated
and that the strength of a given scattered wave bears no
θsk ¼ θ0sk þ φk , ð1:86Þ relation to its phase.
• The phases of the elementary contributions θsk are equally
as follows: likely to lie anywhere in the primary interval [π, π).
X
N
Under these conditions, (1.87) may be seen as an interfer-
Sðx, r Þ ¼ Ak exp ð jθsk Þ ð1:87Þ
k¼1
ence process, in which the interference itself is determined by
the phases θsk . This interference can be constructive, as well
pffiffiffiffiffi as destructive. This effect can be clearly noticed in SAR
where Ak ¼ hk σ k . As observed in (1.87), the process to
form a SAR image pixel consists of the complex coherent images, as the amplitude or the intensity of (1.87) presents
addition of the responses of each one of the discrete a salt and pepper or grainy aspect, as it may be observed in
scatterers, which are not accessible individually. The sole Fig. 1.6, which corresponds to |Shh| acquired with the
available measure is the complex coherent addition itself. RADARSAT-2 system over the city of San Francisco. Such
This coherent addition process receives the name of a phenomenon is known as speckle (Goodman 1985; Lee
bi-dimensional random walk (McCrea and Whipple 1940; 1981; Lopes et al. 1990; Raney 1983).
Doob et al. 1954). Speckle is a true electromagnetic measurement and has a
At this point, it is necessary to consider certain complete deterministic nature, as shown in (1.87). Neverthe-
assumptions about the elementary scattered waves less, the information contained within speckle needs from
Ak exp ð jθsk Þ in order to derive a stochastic model for the two different analyses. In those cases in which there is a
observed SAR image (Beckmann and Spizzichino 1987; reduced number of discrete scatterers within the resolution
Goodman 1985): cell, or its response is basically originated by a reduced set of
Fig. 1.6 RADARSAT-2 amplitude image of the scattering matrix element Shh over San Francisco (USA)
dominant ones, speckle is said to be partially developed. the quantities ℜ{S} and ℑ{S} are Gaussian distributed, that
Hence, the interference itself, i.e. the speckle, contains infor- is, they follow a zero-mean, Gaussian probability density
mation about the scattering process. On the contrary, when function (pdf). The parameters of this pdf can be obtained
there is a large number of discrete scatterers in the cell, on the basis of the discrete scatterers model. The mean values
without a dominant one, the interference process becomes of ℜ{S} and ℑ{S} are equal to zero, and the variances are
so complex that it does contain almost no information about E ℜ 2 fSg ¼ E ℑ 2 fSg ¼ N2 E Ak 2 . Besides, the symme-
the scattering process itself (Oliver and Quegan 1998). This try of the phase distribution of the discrete scatterers produces
case is called fully developed speckle (Ulaby et al. 1986a), (Beckmann and Spizzichino 1987):
and the complexity of the interference process is overcome
by analysing it by statistical means. Hence, speckle turns to X
N
be considered as a noise-like signal (Ulaby et al. 1986b; E fℜ fSgℑ fSgg ¼
k¼1
Lopes et al. 1990).
Summarizing, due to the lack of knowledge about the X
N
detailed structure of the distributed scatterer being imaged EfAk Al gEf cos ðθk Þ sin ðθl Þg
l¼1
by the SAR system, it is necessary to discuss the properties of
the scattered wave statistically. The statistics of concern are ¼ 0:
defined over an ensemble of objects, all with the same mac- ð1:88Þ
roscopic properties, but differing in the internal structure. For
a given SAR system imaging a particular scatterer, e.g. a Under these conditions, ℜ{S} and ℑ{S}, denoted in the
rough surface, the exact value of each pixel cannot be following by x and y, respectively, are described by means of
predicted, but only the parameters of the distribution describ- zero-mean Gaussian pdfs:
ing the pixel values. Therefore, for a SAR image, the actual

information per pixel is very low as individual pixels are 1 x 2
px ðxÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi exp , x 2 ð1, 1Þ ð1:89Þ
random samples from distributions characterized by a πσ 2 σ
reduced set of parameters.

1 y 2
py ðyÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi exp , y 2 ð1, 1Þ ð1:90Þ
πσ 2 σ
1.2.1 One-Dimensional Gaussian Distribution
where the variance is σ 2 ¼ (N/2)E{Ak2}. The pdfs px(x) and
Considering a SAR system to be described by a rectangular py( y) are denoted in the following as N ð0, σ 2 Þ. Consequently,
low-pass filter (see (1.81)) and the distributed scatterer to be a SAR image, S ¼ x + jy ¼ A exp ( jθ), is described by a zero-
modelled by a set of discrete deterministic scatterers, by mean, complex, Gaussian distribution, with uncorrelated real
means of the single or Born scattering approximation, a and imaginary parts, denoted next as N ð0, σ 2 Þ. From (1.89)
SAR image, S(x, r), can be described by the model presented and (1.90), p it ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
is straightforward to derive pA(A) and pθ(θ),
in (1.87). where A ¼ x2 þ y2 and θ ¼ arctan (y/x), as:
The main parameter in the SAR image model is the
number of discrete scatterers within the resolution cell, 2
A A
i.e. N. Depending on the nature of this parameter, different pA,θ ðA, θÞ ¼ 2 exp ð1:91Þ
πσ σ
SAR image statistical models can be derived. On the one
2
hand, if N is considered as a constant value, provided that it is

2A A
large enough, (1.87) leads to the complex, zero-mean, com- pA ðAÞ ¼ exp , A 2 ½0, 1Þ ð1:92Þ
σ2 σ
plex Gaussian pdf model, valid for homogeneous,
non-textured SAR images (Beckmann and Spizzichino
1
1987; Goodman 1985; Papoulis 1984). On the other hand, pθ ð θ Þ ¼ , θ 2 ½π, π Þ: ð1:93Þ
2π
to consider N as a random variable makes (1.87) to lead to pdf
models valid for textured areas description. In the following, The amplitude pdf, i.e. pA(A), is known as Rayleigh distri-
the zero-mean, complex Gaussian distribution model shall be bution. In addition, if intensity, i.e. I ¼ A2, is considered, the
considered, although possible extensions to textured image Rayleigh pdf is transformed to an exponential pdf:
models shall be indicated.
When the number of discrete scatterers inside the resolu-
1 I
pI ð I Þ ¼ exp 2 , I 2 ½0, 1Þ: ð1:94Þ
tion cell N is large, provided that Ak cos ( jθk) and Ak sin ( jθk) σ 2 σ
satisfy the central limit theorem (Oliver and Quegan 1998),
On the other hand, (1.93) shows that the SAR image phase 1.2.2 Multidimensional Gaussian Distribution
has a uniform pdf. Consequently, this phase bears no infor-
mation concerning the natural scene being imaged. The previous section was concerned with the statistical
Given the SAR image amplitude pdf (1.92), the amplitude description of one-dimensional complex data acquired by a
pffiffiffi
mean value is equal to σ π =2, whereas the variance equals complex SAR system, i.e. a single SAR image. As shown,
(1 (π/4))σ . If the coefficient of variation, defined as the
2
despite the data’s complex nature, only the amplitude, or the
standard deviation ffi divided by the mean, is calculated, it
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi intensity, contains useful information concerning the
equals ð4=π Þ 1 . For the intensity I, it has a value equal distributed target under analysis. The amount of information
to 1 as the mean and the variance are equal to σ 2. As a can be increased by acquiring more than one SAR image, if
consequence, the intensity of a SAR image can be modelled one or more imaging parameters, e.g. system position, acqui-
as the product of two uncorrelated terms (Goodman 1985; sition time, frequency or polarization, are varied. What it is
Lee 1981; Lopes et al. 1990; Raney 1983), i.e. pursued, hence, is the study of the variation of the scatterer’s
response to changes of the SAR system parameters. The
I ¼ σ 0 n: ð1:95Þ volume of information is increased as more data channels
are available but also because, if available, the multidimen-
The deterministic-like value is given by its mean, i.e. σ 0, sional data correlation structure can be also exploited to
which corresponds to the mean incoherent power of the area extract information about the observed scatterer (Oliver and
under study (1.78). The random process n, with mean and Quegan 1998; Cloude and Pottier 1996). The following list
variance equal to 1, is characterized by an exponential pdf shows the most common multidimensional SAR
and is defined as the speckle noise component. As it may be configurations, as well as their main applications:
observed from the model (1.94) and (1.95), if the mean value
of the intensity increases, the variance increases as well. • SAR Interferometry (InSAR) (Bamler and Hartl 1998): In
Therefore, this model is known as the multiplicative speckle this configuration, two SAR systems image the same
noise model. In other words, the signal to noise ratio of the scene from slightly different positions in space, leading
image cannot be improved by increasing the transmitted to two-dimensional SAR data. In this way, the phase
power, as the variance of the data will increase difference between the two acquisitions is proportional
proportionally. to the terrain’s topography. This configuration is exten-
The Gaussian model for SAR data, leading to (1.91) and sively employed nowadays to obtain Digital Elevation
(1.95), is able to characterize SAR data for homogeneous Models (DEMs) of the terrain.
areas. In this case, useful information is described by a single • Differential SAR Interferometry (DInSAR) (Gabriel et al.
degree of freedom, corresponding to the mean intensity. 1989): This SAR configuration admits several variants.
Nevertheless, for certain types of distributed scatterers, such On the one hand, a differential interferogram can be
a simple model cannot describe all the data variability. The obtained through the difference of two interferograms
reason behind this limitation is that this type of scatterers acquired with a zero spatial baseline, but at different
need from a more sophisticated model, with more than one times. Consequently, the “residual” differential interfero-
degree of freedom, in order to be completely described. gram can contain small topographic deformations or even
Collectively, these models are able to describe average inten- atmospheric effects. On the other hand, the same effect
sity variations, which correspond to data texture (Oliver and can be observed if the topography of a given interferogram
Quegan 1998). A variety of two-degree of freedom pdf is compensated for by means of an external DEM.
• SAR Polarimetry (PolSAR) (Ulaby and Elachi 1990): In
models have been proposed in the literature, for instance:

K-distribution (Kong 1990), Weibull distribution or this case, the parameters which vary between the different
log-normal distribution (Oliver and Quegan 1998; Papoulis information channels are the polarization of the transmit-
1984; Kong 1990). All these models consist of assuming the ted wave and the polarization with which the scattered
number of scatterers N, within a resolution cell, no longer as a wave by the terrain is collected. A set of two orthogonal
constant, but being described also by a certain distribution. polarization states are employed, being the most common
Even so, there are situations in which these two-parameter the pair of horizontal and vertical polarizations. The most
models are not able to describe the scene. Hence, the solution important property of polarimetry is that the polarimetric
goes into the direction of introducing more degrees of free- response to any polarization state of the incident wave of a
dom, thus resulting in more elaborate image models (Oliver given scatterer can be derived from the response to a pair
and Quegan 1998; Trunk and George 1970; Trunk 1972; of orthogonal polarization states. This SAR configuration
Schleher 1975). exploits the fact that scatterers present different responses
to different polarizations of the incident wave. For back- k ¼ ½ S1 , S2 , . . . , Sm T ð1:96Þ

scattering in which waves are transmitted and collected in
the same position and by considering the reciprocity theo- where m represents the number of SAR images, i.e. the data
rem, PolSAR leads to three-dimensional data. On the dimensionality, according to the previous description. Each
contrary, when scattered waves are collected in a different element of the vector k, i.e. Si for i ¼ 1, 2, . . ., m, represents a
position with respect to the transmitted one, i.e. forward single complex SAR image. In PolSAR, the k vector receives
scattering, PolSAR data are four-dimensional data. the name of scattering or target vector (in the straightforward
• Polarimetric SAR Interferometry (PolInSAR) (Cloude and lexicographic basis), and it represents a vectorization of the
Papathanassiou 1998): This technique tries to combine both scattering matrix S as detailed in Sect. 1.1.2.2. The correla-
the advantages of InSAR and PolSAR. On the one hand, tion structure of the vector k, provided that its m components
the introduction of interferometric diversity makes possible Si N ð0, σ 2 Þ, is completely characterized by the Hermitian
the data to be sensible to the structure of the target in the covariance matrix C, defined as follows:
vertical dimension. On the other hand, the data are related
to different scattering mechanisms in the same resolution C ¼ E kkH
cell, thanks to the polarimetric capabilities of the acquisi- 2 3
tion system. Hence, PolInSAR data are sensible to different E S1 SH
1 E S1 SH
2 ⋯ E S1 SH
m
6 E S SH E S2 SH ⋯ E S2 SH 7
scattering mechanisms in the same image pixel, located at 6 2 1 m 7
¼6 2
7: ð1:97Þ
different heights. The introduction of simple scattering 4 ⋮ ⋮ ⋱ ⋮ 5
models allows to extract relevant information about the E Sm SH E Sm SH ⋯ E Sm SH
1 2 m
scatterer under study. Among the possible applications of
this technique, the most important is the extraction of
In the particular case of PolSAR data, the data correlation
parameters related to the vegetation cover which allow
structure can be also expressed by the Hermitian coherency
biomass estimation. In terms of data dimensionality,
matrix Τ (Cloude and Pottier 1996). Considering (1.97), one
PolInSAR data consist of six-dimensional data if backscat-
can see that the complex vector k is characterized by the
tering is considered, whereas they are eight-dimensional
following pdf (Lee et al. 1994; Tough et al. 1995):
data for forward scattering.
• SAR Tomography (TomoSAR) (Reigber and Moreira 1
2000): As shown in the previous point, PolInSAR pk ðkÞ ¼ exp kH C1 k : ð1:98Þ
π m jCj
represents a first step to resolve the vertical structure of
the imaged scatterer. In this direction, SAR tomography is Hence, (1.98) represents the data pdf model for a set of
a technique directed to achieve a real three-dimensional m correlated SAR images, which is denoted in the following
reconstruction of the scene under observation. Both the as N ð0, CÞ. Since kN~ ð0, CÞ, it is completely characterized
SAR data acquisition and processing are based on the by the first and the second central moments, i.e. the mean
generation and processing of a synthetic aperture in the target vector and the covariance matrix, respectively.
azimuth direction to reconstruct the object in this direc- At this point, it is important to consider, as presented
tion. In the same way, SAR tomography is based on the before, the issue that the mean value of the real and imaginary
synthesis of an aperture in the dimension perpendicular to parts of k equals zero. The main consequence is that it
the plane formed by the azimuth and range dimensions, by prevents the possibility to extract useful information via an
acquiring several SAR images in the vertical dimension. estimation of this mean value. For instance, this circumstance
Consequently, the phase information of these images can determines the way PolSAR data has to be considered when
be employed to reconstruct, with enough spatial resolu- distributed scatterers are of concern. A PolSAR system
tion, the vertical structure of the scatterer. measures the 2 2 complex scattering matrix S, which can
• Multifrequency SAR (Sarabandi 1997; Lee et al. 1991): As be vectorized into the form presented by (1.96) (Cloude and
shown in the literature, the response of a given scatterer Pottier 1996; Bebbington 1992); see also Sect. 1.1.2.2. On
depends on frequency. Consequently, in order to extract the one hand, when this scattering vector refers to a
the maximum amount of information concerning the distributed scatterer, a given sample of it has almost no
scatterer, several SAR images can be acquired at different information concerning the scatterer itself, as k consists of a
frequencies. Therefore, the dimensionality of the data sample of the pdf given by (1.98) (Oliver and Quegan 1998).
depends on the number of acquired images. On the other hand, if the mean value of k is estimated, it turns
out to be zero. Thus, as reported in the literature, when
From a general point of view, a multidimensional SAR distributed scatterers are studied, the vector k, or the scatter-
system acquires a set of SAR images, represented by the ing matrix S in the particular case of PolSAR, cannot
complex vector completely describe the properties of the distributed scatterer.
Therefore, it is necessary to characterize these properties by same covariance as k. When T is considered to be described
means of higher-order moments, i.e. through an estimation of by a square-root gamma pdf, the data k in (1.99) is described
the covariance matrix C, or, additionally, the coherency by the so-called K-distribution (Kong 1990). Although (1.99)
matrix Τ. These two matrices are derived through the outer gives rise to textured data, an important result is that any
product of the target vectors kl and kp, respectively, as model based on the fluctuation of the number of discrete
indicated in Sect. 1.1.2.2, so they are independent of the scatterers within the resolution cell gives rise to data that is
absolute phase of the scattering matrix S or the target vectors multivariate Gaussian at each pixel. That is, despite the
kl and kp. Hence, the expected value in (1.97) needs to be texture, the data’s correlation structure is still determined by
estimated. The process to estimate the covariance matrix C is the multidimensional Gaussian structure.
also referred to as the polarimetric speckle noise removal The main drawback of the model given by (1.99) is that,
process, as the objective is to remove the variability of the since the texture parameter T is a scalar, the texture informa-
data making it possible to retrieve the C matrix. tion is the same of all the channels of the vector k. Neverthe-
In the rest, the complex, multidimensional Gaussian less, recent results presented in the literature point out that,
model, presented by (1.98), is taken as the multidimensional especially in the case of PolSAR data, the texture information
SAR imagery model. As for the one-dimensional model for a could be different for every SAR data channel (Oliver and
single SAR image, the complex, multidimensional Gaussian Quegan 1998; De Grandi et al. 2003). The physical reason
model can be considered valid for homogeneous areas, that that would explain this issue is that a scatterer presents
is, areas in which the statistical properties of the data remain different responses to different polarizations. Hence, these
constant. The main reason of this choice has to be found in differences, of course considered in the covariance matrix
the fact that the simplicity of the complex, multidimensional C, could be also be present within the texture information.
Gaussian pdf, makes it possible the analytical analysis of the As noticed, in order to extract the useful information
information which can be extracted from the data. In addi- concerning the distributed scatterer under analysis from mul-
tion, many studies reported in the literature support this tidimensional SAR data, it is necessary to estimate the covari-
model. ance matrix C, or expressed in a different way, polarimetric
The multidimensional, zero-mean, complex Gaussian pdf speckle noise must be filtered out. The estimated value of the
model is based on the following assumptions: covariance matrix C, which generally receives the name of
sample covariance matrix and is denoted by Z, is studied in
• The distributed scatterer may be modelled as a collection detail in the following.
of discrete or point scatterers, whereas the scattering pro-
cess occurring at the surface, or within it, is considered
under the Born or simple scattering approximation. 1.2.3 The Wishart Distribution
• The properties of the distributed scatterer remain constant
in space, hence leading to homogeneous SAR data. The nature of multidimensional SAR data, provided the zero-
mean, multidimensional, complex Gaussian pdf to be the
Thus, whenever any of the previous two suppositions are right data model, makes it necessary to study the distributed
not fulfilled, SAR data can no longer be assumed to be scatterer properties through the estimation of the covariance
described by the complex, multidimensional Gaussian pdf matrix C. The maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) of
model. These departures have been noticed in the literature C (Oliver and Quegan 1998) corresponds to
at high resolutions or high frequencies, giving rise to data
2 3
1X 1X 1X
texture. As for one-dimensional SAR imagery, some of these n n n
6n jS1k j2 S S ⋯ S1k Smk 7

departures can be explained by considering N, the total num- 6 k¼1 n k¼1 1k 2k n k¼1 7
ber of scatterers in the resolution cell, to be described by a 6 7
61 X n
1X
n Xn 7
certain pdf. If the mean number of scatterers contributing to 6 S2k S1k jS j2 ⋯
1 7
6 n k¼1 2k
S2k Smk 7
the measurement at each pixel is large, then whatever the pdf Z ¼ 6 n k¼1 n k¼1 7:
6 7
6 ⋮ ⋮ ⋱ ⋮ 7
of the number of discrete scatterers, the vector k can be 6 7
6 X X 7
1X
n n n
represented by the product of two independent processes: 41 1 2 5
S S S S ⋯ jSmk j
n k¼1 mk 1k n k¼1 mk 2k n k¼1
0
k ¼ Tk , ð1:99Þ
ð1:100Þ
where T is a positive scalar texture and k0 is a complex,
If one considers the expectation of the MLE
multidimensional Gaussian distributed vector, with the
1 extract physical information from observed multidimensional

EfZg ¼ E AAH ¼ C, ð1:101Þ
n SAR data. Most of these techniques have the covariance
matrix C, or certain information derived from it, as the
it can be demonstrated that the MLE of the Hermitian covari- main input of the inversion process. Since due to the intrinsic
ance matrix is an unbiased estimator. In addition, it can be nature of SAR systems, direct access to the covariance matrix
shown that the variance of the different matrix components of C is not possible, it must be estimated from the observed
Z decreases with the number of samples n. multidimensional SAR data.
In SAR applications, the MLE of the covariance matrix As shown in Sect. 1.2.1, the estimation of incoherent
receives often the name of covariance matrix multilook esti- power may be also understood as a filtering process. One
mator (Sarabandi 1997), whereas Z is known as the sample alternative to define this filtering process is to assume a given
covariance matrix (Kay 1993). Here, look refers to each one noise model able to identify the information of interest and
of the independent averaged samples. Hence, it can be the noise sources that corrupt this information. In the case of
concluded from (1.101) that the performance of the covari- single SAR images, this noise model corresponds to the
ance matrix estimation Z, for homogeneous data, depends on multiplicative speckle noise model in (1.95). In the case of
the number of averaged samples or looks, in such a way that multidimensional SAR data, this model cannot be extended
the larger the number of looks, the lower the variance and the to the whole covariance matrix Z as it would imply uncorre-
better the estimation. As the Z matrix is estimated from lated SAR images. Nevertheless, the multiplicative speckle
random samples, this matrix is also a random matrix. Finally, noise model can be extended to model the diagonal as well as
the distribution of the sample covariance matrix the off-diagonal elements of Z (Lopez Martínez and Fabregas
Z corresponds to the Wishart distribution: 2003). In this case, the nature of the speckle noise for a
particular element of the covariance matrix depends on the
jZjnm
pZ ðZÞ ¼ ne
etr C1 Z ð1:102Þ correlation that characterizes this element. For low correla-
jCj Γm ðnÞ tion, speckle noise presents an additive nature, whereas for
high correlation, speckle noise is characterized by a multipli-
where etr() is the exponential of the matrix trace and the cative behaviour. Consequently, this model is referred to as
complex multivariate gamma function is defined as the multiplicative-additive speckle noise model for multidi-
mensional SAR data.
em ðnÞ ¼ π mðm1Þ=2 ∏m Γðn i þ 1Þ:
Γ ð1:103Þ
i¼1
The distribution presented in (1.102) is denoted by 1.2.4 The Polarimetric Covariance

ZW~ ðnC, mÞ. It can be observed from (1.102) that the Wishart and Coherency Matrix
distribution depends on three parameters: the number of data
channels m, the number of averaged multidimensional data As indicated in the previous section, the characterization of
samples n and the true covariance matrix C. The expression distributed scatterers must be performed through the covari-
of the Wishart distribution is only defined for n m in order ance C or the coherency T matrices. In a bistatic configura-
to assure Z to be a full-rank matrix with a non-zero tion, and according to what has been presented in Sect.
determinant. 1.1.2.2, these two matrices are defined as
As it has been highlighted, the Hermitian covariance
matrix C represents the cornerstone in multidimensional C ¼ E kl kT
l
2 n o 3
SAR data processing, and especially in PolSAR, together

with its counterpart, the coherency matrix T. The final objec- E jShh j2 E Shh Shv E Shh Svh E Shh Svv
6 n o 7
6 7
tive of estimating these matrices is the possibility to extract 6 E Shv S E jShv j2 Shv Svh Shv Svv 7
6 hh E E 7
physical information to characterize the distributed scatterers ¼66 n o 7
7
being imaged by the SAR system. This task is performed by a 6 E Svh Shh E Svh Shv E jSvh j2 E Svh Svv 7

6 7
collection of algorithms and techniques, collectively known 4 n o5
as inversion algorithms. The aim of these techniques is the E Svv Shh E Svv Shv E Svv Svh E jSvv j 2
establishment of relations between the physical properties of ð1:104Þ

the distributed scatterer and the observed SAR data, hence
making it possible the inversion of this process in order to and
n o
T ¼ E kp kT
p
2 n o 3
E jShh þ Svv j2 E fðShh þ Svv ÞðShh Svv Þ g E fðShh þ Svv ÞðShv þ Svh Þ g E fðShh þ Svv Þð jðShv Svh ÞÞ g
6 n o 7
6 7
6 E fðShh Svv ÞðShh þ Svv Þ g E jShh Svv j 2
E fðShh Svv ÞðShv þ Svh Þ g E fðShh Svv Þð jðShv Svh ÞÞ g 7 7
6
¼66 n o 7
6 E fðShv þ Svh ÞðShh þ Svv Þ g E fðShv þ Svh ÞðShh Svv Þ g 77
6 E jS hv þ S vh j 2
E f ð S hv þ S vh Þ ð j ð S hv S vh ÞÞ g 7
4 n o 5

Ef jðShv Svh ÞðShh þ Svv Þ g E f jðShv Svh ÞðShh Svv Þ g E f jðShv Svh ÞðShv þ Svh Þ g E jShv Svh j 2
ð1:105Þ
respectively. In the case of a monostatic system configura- and

tion, the covariance and the coherency matrices are defined as
C ¼ E kl kT
l
2 n o pffiffiffi 3
E jShh j2 E 2Shh Shv E Shh Svv
6 n o 7
6 pffiffiffi pffiffiffi 7
¼66 E 2Shv Shh

E jShv j2 E 2Shv Svv 7
7
4 pffiffiffi n o 5
E Svv Shh E 2Svv Shv E jSvv j2
ð1:106Þ
2 n o 3
E jShh þ Svv j2 E fðShh þ Svv ÞðShh Svv Þ g E 2ðShh þ Svv ÞShv
n 6
o 6 n o 7
7
T ¼ E kp kT
p ¼6
6 E f ð S hh S vv Þ ð S hh þ S vv Þ
g E j S hh S vv j2
E 2ðShh Svv ÞShv 7:
7 ð1:107Þ
4 n o 5
E f2Shv ðShh þ Svv Þ g E f2Shv ðShh Svv Þ g E 4jShv j2
As demonstrated in the previous section, the maximum of the covariance C or the coherency T matrices. If the
likelihood estimator of the expectation operator E{} and scatterer under study has reflection symmetry in a plane
therefore the maximum likelihood estimator of the covari- normal to the line of sight, then the covariance and the
ance and coherency matrices correspond to the spatial aver- coherency matrices will have the following general forms:
aging, referred to as multilook or boxcar filter. In this case,
2 3
the estimated covariance and coherency matrices receive the c11 0 c13
names of sample covariance and sample coherency matrices, 6 7
C¼4 0 c22 0 5,
respectively.
c31 0 c33
Eqs. (1.106) and (1.107) represent the most general form 2 3
of the covariance and coherency matrices, respectively, for a t 11 t 12 0
6 7
monostatic configuration. As these matrices are Hermitian, T ¼ 4 t 21 t 22 0 5, ð1:108Þ
they contain up to nine independent parameters. Neverthe- 0 0 t 33
less, depending on the type of scatterer, the number of inde-
pendent parameters can be lower leading to a particular form
that is, the cross-polar scattering coefficient will be uncorre- system characteristics, is also influenced by the physical
lated with the co-polar terms. Under this hypothesis, the properties of the area under study. The complex correlation
covariance C or the coherency T matrices present up to five coefficient is the most important observable for InSAR
independent parameters. In addition to reflection symmetry, a (Bamler and Hartl 1998). On the one hand, and considering
medium may also exhibit rotation symmetry. This type of the acquisition geometry, it has been demonstrated that its
symmetry is referred to as azimuthal symmetry, leading to a phase contains information about the Earth’s surface topog-
coherency matrix presenting the following form: raphy. Therefore, InSAR phase data are employed to derive
Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) of the terrain. On the other
2 3
α 0 0 hand, although there is not a complete understanding about
6 7 the parameters and the physical processes affecting the inter-
T ¼ 24 0 β 05 ð1:109Þ
ferometric coherence, it has been shown that this parameter
0 0 β
may be successfully employed to characterize the properties
and the dynamics of the Earth’s surface.
which has only two independent parameters α and β.
The coherence represents also an important source of
information when PolSAR data are addressed. In particular,
the complex correlation coefficient parameter derived from
1.2.5 The Polarimetric Coherence
circularly polarized data has been employed to characterize
rough surfaces (Mattia et al. 2003), to study the sea surface
From the expressions of the covariance and coherency matri-
(Kasilingam et al. 2002) or to discriminate sea ice types
ces that were introduced in Sect. 1.2.4, one may see that the
(Wakabayashi et al. 2004). When obtained from linearly
elements of these matrices may be divided into two types: on
polarized data, the coherence has been also employed to
the one hand, the diagonal elements containing the power
characterize the forest cover in the Colombian Amazon
information and, on the other hand, the off-diagonal elements
(Hoekman and Quinones 2002). In conjunction with polari-
that contain the correlation information between the different
metric techniques, i.e. polarimetric SAR interferometry
channels of information. This correlation information may be
(PolInSAR), the interferometric coherence is employed to
considered in an absolute way by considering just the
retrieve the forest vegetation (Cloude and Papathanassiou
off-diagonal elements of these matrices. Nevertheless, this
1998) or the crop plants heights (Ballester Berman et al.
correlation information may be also considered in a relative
2005).
way through the so-called complex correlation parameter,
All the techniques listed in the previous paragraph rely on
defined as
a correct estimation of the coherence parameter. The
estimated coherence values are overestimated, especially for
E Sk Sl
ρ ¼ ρe jϕx
¼ rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
n o n o: ð1:110Þ low coherence values (Touzi et al. 1999). Under the homoge-
2
E jSk j E jSl j 2 neity hypothesis, the coherence accuracy and bias depend on
the extent of the averaging or estimation process, in such a
way that the larger the number of averaged pixels, the higher
This parameter contains the information of statistical the coherence accuracy and the lower the bias. Therefore,
resemblance between any two SAR images Sk and Sl. Indeed, since coherence accuracy is achieved at the expense of spatial
these SAR images correspond to the different elements of the resolution and spatial details, this point represents a clear
target vector k defined in Sect. 1.1.2.2. The amplitude of the trade-off for coherence estimation. Coherence estimation
complex correlation coefficient, normally referred to as cor- techniques rely also on the hypothesis that all the signals
relation |ρ|, presents a value in the range [0,1]. If |ρ| ¼ 0 it involved in the estimation process are stationary and in
means that both SAR images are statistically independent, particular locally stationary processes. When this is not the
and the phase ϕx contains no information. For |ρ| ¼ 1, both case, biased coherence values result (Touzi et al. 1999).
SAR images are statistically equal, and the phase informa- Hence, a lack of signal stationarity can be considered as a
tion, free of noise, is a delta function containing information second source of bias for coherence estimation. The depar-
about the scattering process. For any other value, |ρ| ture of the stationarity condition may be induced by system-
establishes the correlation between both SAR images, and atic phase variations mainly due to the terrain topography but
the phase information ϕx is contaminated by the effect of also to atmospheric effects or to deformation gradients. The
speckle noise. most reliable technique to eliminate this bias is to compensate
In multidimensional SAR imagery, the complex correla- for the topography by means of external DEMs. Neverthe-
tion coefficient has been revealed as an important source of less, the DEM may not be available for the scene under study,
information. In particular, the correlation coefficient ampli- or its quality may be rather low for coherence estimation
tude, named coherence, apart from depending on the SAR purposes. There exist alternative coherence estimation
techniques aiming to solve these problems with different necessity to specify the general principles of a PolSAR
level of success. speckle filter and which are the potential limitations: Touzi
et al. (Touzi and Lopes 1994), Lee et al. (Lee et al. 1999) and
López-Martínez et al. (Lopez Martínez and Fabregas 2008).
1.2.6 Polarimetric Speckle Noise Filtering In the previous three references, as the data is assumed to
be characterized by the zero-mean, complex Gaussian pdf,
As it has been explained previously, a PolSAR system the information to retrieve is on the second-order moments of
measures the scattering matrix S for every pixel. In the case the PolSAR data. In (Touzi and Lopes 1994), the authors
of deterministic or point scatterers, this matrix determines propose the use of the Mueller matrix, although they also
completely the scattering process, and it can be directly consider the covariance matrix. In (Lee et al. 1999; Lopez
employed to retrieve physical information of the scatterer. Martínez and Fabregas 2008), the filtering is performed on
Nevertheless, in the case of distributed scatterers, the scatter- the covariance or on the coherency matrices. In any case, the
ing matrix S is no longer deterministic but random due to the use of the covariance, the coherency or the Mueller matrices
complexity of the scattering process. As indicated, this ran- to filter the data is equivalent as all these matrices contain the
dom behaviour is referred to as speckle. Speckle is a true same information. For instance, as indicated previously in
scattering measurement, but the complexity of the scattering Sect. 1.1.2.2, the covariance and the coherency matrices are
process makes it necessary to consider it as a noise source. related by similarity transformations. Implicitly, the authors
Consequently, the information of interest is no longer the are considering that these matrices contain all the necessary
scattering matrix, but the different stochastic moments neces- information to characterize the PolSAR data. This assump-
sary to specify completely the probability density function of tion is only valid under the hypothesis of (1.98), which only
the SAR data. These moments must be estimated from the applies in the case of stationary data. The presumption of
measured data, or said in a different way, speckle noise must more evolved stochastic data models that may take into
be filtered out or even eliminated to grant access to these account additional signal variability, for instance, texture,
statistical moments. In the case of PolSAR data, under the are always associated with the necessity to estimate addi-
assumption of the vector k to be distributed according to the tional stochastic moments associated with the texture
zero-mean, complex Gaussian distribution (1.98), these information.
moments correspond to the covariance C or the coherency Another point in which all the previous three references
T matrices. are in agreement is the need to consider the estimation of the
Section 1.2.3 already introduced the simplest approach to previous matrices locally, adapting to the stationarity or
estimate the covariance or the coherency matrices, i.e. the homogeneity of the PolSAR data. This requirement is
multilook (1.100), which corresponds to an incoherent aver- justified from two different points of view. The first one
age or a spatial average. Although the multilook approach refers, due to the stationarity of PolSAR data, to the need to
corresponds to the maximum likelihood estimator of the maintaining the spatial resolution and the radiometric infor-
covariance or coherency matrices, it presents the drawback mation in the case of point or deterministic scatterers, which
that the estimation of the data is obtained at the expense of may be extended to the idea of preserving the spatial resolu-
degrading the spatial resolution and the spatial details of the tion and the spatial details of the PolSAR data. The second
data. Figure 1.7 shows an example of these effects. refers to the fact that in the case of distributed scatterers, the
Considering the limitations of the multilook filtering covariance matrix must be estimated on stationary data,
approach, it is necessary to define different filtering avoiding the mixture of different stationary areas. This idea
implies that the PolSAR filter must adapt the filtering process
alternatives that improve the multilook approach in such a

way that they are able to retain the spatial resolution and the to the morphology of the PolSAR data. The differences
spatial details of the image but also lead to a correct and between the filtering principles for PolSAR data proposed
unbiased estimation of the covariance and coherency by Touzi and Lopes (1994), Lee et al. (1999) and Lopez
matrices. Martínez and Fabregas (2008) are on how to consider the
information that may be provided by the off-diagonal
1.2.6.1 PolSAR Speckle Noise Filtering Principles elements of the covariance or coherency matrices and
The objective of any PolSAR speckle noise filter to be whether this information may be employed to optimize
defined is to estimate the covariance or the coherency matrix speckle noise reduction or not. The approaches proposed by
while retaining the spatial resolution and the spatial details of Touzi and Lopes (1994) and Lee et al. (1999)) suggest an
the data. From a general point of view, it would be necessary extension of the multiplicative speckle noise model that
to determine the general principles a PolSAR filter should applies for the diagonal entries of the covariance matrix to
follow in order to perform a correct estimation of the infor- the off-diagonal ones, although it is also admitted that this
mation of interest. Different authors have addressed the extension may not lead to an optimum filtering of the speckle
Fig. 1.7 RADARSAT-2 polarimetric RGB image over San Francisco (USA) where the colour code is Shh blue, Svv red and Shv green. (a) Original
image and (b) filtered image with a 7 7 multilook filter
noise component. In (Lee et al. 1999), the authors even presents a complex additive nature for low coherence values,
propose that the use of the degree of statistical independence whereas speckle tends to be multiplicative in the case of high
between elements must be avoided in order to avoid crosstalk coherences. Consequently, an optimum speckle noise reduc-
and that all the elements of the covariance matrix must be tion should adapt to the type of noise for the off-diagonal
filtered by the same amount. These principles were extended elements of the covariance matrix, that is, filtering must adapt
in (Lopez Martínez and Fabregas 2008), based on a more to the level of coherence (Lopez Martínez and Fabregas
accurate PolSAR speckle noise model for the off-diagonal 2008). As it may be concluded, a PolSAR filter needs also
elements of the covariance matrix (Lopez Martínez and to be adapted to the polarimetric information content of the
Fabregas 2003). This model predicts that for a given data. Consequently, in connection with what has been
off-diagonal element of the covariance matrix, speckle explained previously, the way a PolSAR filter adapts to the
local information must consider all the information provided mechanism as the central pixel, obtained through the
by the covariance or coherency matrices. Freeman-Durden decomposition (Lee et al. 2006).
As it may be observed, the previous filtering approach
1.2.6.2 PolSAR Speckle Noise Filtering Alternatives adapts to the signal morphology through a family of edge
As indicated in Sect. 1.2.3, the first alternative to estimate the aligned windows. Hence, the adaptation to the signal morphol-
covariance or the coherency matrices is to consider their ogy is restricted to a finite family of aligned windows. In
maximum likelihood estimator that corresponds to an inco- (Vasile et al. 2006), the authors extended the ideas presented
herent spatial average as expressed in (1.101). In this case, in (Lee et al. 1999), but instead of considering edge aligned
the estimation of the information is obtained at the expense of windows, the authors introduced the concept of region grow-
the loss of spatial resolution and spatial details. Conse- ing to define an adaptive set of homogeneous pixels
quently, in order to avoid the previous drawbacks, the surrounding the pixel under analysis in order to adapt to the
PolSAR data filters should adapt to the morphology of the local morphology of the data. As in the case of Lee et al.
SAR image to retain the spatial details while leading to a (1999)), the adaptation to the signal morphology is achieved
correct and unbiased estimation of the covariance or coher- through the Span image. The region growing process is based
ency matrices. on comparing a given pixel against its neighbours to determine
PolSAR images are inherently heterogeneous as they their similarity by considering their corresponding covariance
reflect the heterogeneity of the Earth surface. Consequently, and coherency matrices. Since a PolSAR system provides for
a first alternative to adapt to this heterogeneity, in order to every pixel only the scattering matrix, an initial process of
avoid the loss of spatial resolution and spatial details, is to regularization that assures full-rank covariance or coherency
adapt locally to the signal morphology. One option to achieve matrices is necessary. This regularization process could be
this local adaptation is to consider edge aligned windows, as performed with the multilook filter, but it would introduce a
proposed in (Lee et al. 1999). Previously to the PolSAR data loss of spatial resolution and spatial details. In (Lee et al.
filtering process, the algorithm in (Lee et al. 1999), known as 1999), the authors propose the use of the median filter. Never-
refined Lee filter, proposed the use of directional masks, theless, this alternative introduces a bias in the estimated data,
within the analysis window, to determine the most homoge- as in the case of non-symmetric distributions, such as the one
neous part of the sliding window where the local statistics of the amplitude or the intensity of a SAR image or the one of
have to be estimated. This spatial adaptation permits to pre- the Span, the median does not correspond to the mean.
serve relatively sharp edges and local details. Once the direc- All the previous filtering approaches adapt to the signal
tional mask defines the homogeneous pixels that have to be morphology locally under the assumption that the pixels
employed to estimate the covariance or the coherency matri- surrounding the pixel of analysis present a high probability
ces, these are estimated by means of the Local Linear Mini- to be statistically similar. Hence, these filters assume that the
mum Mean Square Error (LLMMSE) approach, i.e. data are locally stationary. Nevertheless, it has been recently
demonstrated that this idea of local stationary could be

b ¼Zþb ZZ
Z ð1:111Þ relaxed under the assumption that similar pixels to the one
of analysis are available not only on the neighbourhood of the
where Zb is the estimated value of the covariance matrix, Z is pixel of analysis but on the complete image (Deledalle et al.
the local mean covariance matrix computed with the homo- 2010).
geneous pixels selected by the edge aligned window and In order to increase the filtering effect, one option, as
Z corresponds to the covariance matrix of the central pixel. shown in (Vasile et al. 2006), is to increase the number of
Finally, b is a weighting function having a value between homogeneous pixels to be averaged that are similar to the
0 and 1 derived from the statistics of the Span image. Over pixel under consideration. In (Vasile et al. 2006), as well as in
homogeneous areas, b 0 so the estimated covariance matrix (Lee et al. 1999), the similarity is measured considering only
corresponds to the values of the local means as it would be the information contained in the diagonal elements of the
expected in absence of spatial details. Nevertheless, in the covariance or coherency matrices. Therefore, these
case the central pixel of the analysis window corresponds to a approaches neglect the information provided by the
deterministic scatterer, b 1 producing Z b to be the covari- off-diagonal elements of these matrices. The way to take
ance matrix of the central pixel. Consequently, the pixel is into account all the information provided by the covariance
not filtered and the spatial resolution is preserved, as or the coherency matrices is to consider the concept of the
observed in Fig. 1.8. In relation with the filtering procedure distance in the space defined by the matrices themselves.
proposed in (Lee et al. 1999), the authors proposed also a This approach has been considered in (Deledalle et al.
filtering alternative where the pixels to be averaged within the 2010) as well as in (Alonso Gonzalez et al. 2012). In (Alonso
analysis window are those with the same scattering Gonzalez et al. 2012), the authors propose to introduce the
Fig. 1.8 RADARSAT-2 polarimetric RGB image over San Francisco (USA) where the colour code is Shh blue, Svv red and Shv green. Filtered image
with the LLMMSE speckle filter
concept of binary partition tree (BPT) as a hierarchical Beyond all the PolSAR data filtering techniques presented
structure to exploit the relations that may be established in this section, there exist a wide variety of similar
between similar pixels. In essence, the filtering alternative approaches in the related literature, where a comparison
proposed in (Alonso Gonzalez et al. 2012) produces first a among some of them has been presented in (Foucher et al.
binary partition tree that establishes the relations between 2012). Nevertheless, it may be concluded that reaching an
similar pixels on the basis of a distance that takes into account optimal compromise of a joint preservation of the polarimet-
all the polarimetric information. In a second step, the binary ric and the spatial information, in the case of PolSAR data
partition tree is pruned to find the largest homogeneous filtering, is still today a problem without an adequate solu-
regions of the image. This filtering alternative allows to filter tion. Consequently, the selection of a particular filtering
large homogeneous areas while maintaining the spatial alternative for PolSAR data must take into consideration the
details of the data as observed in Fig. 1.9. final application of the PolSAR data in order to determine the
The objective of all the previous filtering techniques is to optimum filtering according to that application.
obtain the best estimate of the covariance or coherency matri-
ces by means of increasing the number of averaged samples.
Nevertheless, if the number of available homogeneous pixels 1.3 Polarimetric Scattering Decomposition
is not large enough, the way to improve the estimation of the Theorems
covariance and coherency matrices must be addressed by
considering a better exploitation of the Wishart distribution. As shown in Sect. 1.1.2, the scattering matrix or the covari-
As shown in (Lopez Martínez and Fabregas 2003), the ance and coherency matrices allow the characterization of a
Wishart distribution allows defining the multiplicative- scatterer for a given frequency and a given imaging geome-
additive speckle noise model for all the elements of the try. The information provided by these matrices, at a particu-
covariance or the coherency matrices. This model has been lar combination of transmitting and receiving polarization
exploited for PolSAR data filtering in (Lopez Martínez and states, can be extended to any polarization state, thanks to
Fabregas 2008), where it is demonstrated that if the filtering the concept of polarization synthesis. Nevertheless, when
process is adapted to the multiplicative or additive nature of facing real polarimetric SAR data, the interpretation of
speckle, depending on the correlation of a pair of SAR these matrices is not straightforward due to the complexity
images, it may lead to an improved estimation of the different of the scattering process and the high variability of the
parametric parameters that characterize the covariance or scatterers. Polarimetric decomposition techniques appear as
coherency matrices. a solution to interpret the information provided by the
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L’avocat fut abasourdi ; il considéra son compagnon et comprit
qu’il ne pèserait pas lourd entre ses mains.
Le train les déposa à Issoire où ils devaient passer la nuit ;
comme ils prenaient le café, un homme entra qui vint tout droit à
Maître Fougnasse.
— Eh bien ! lui demanda-t-il, quand c’est-il qu’on les liquide, ces
Parisiens ?
L’avocat eut un clin d’œil à peine perceptible qui n’échappa pas à
Bernard et mit tout de suite son interlocuteur en garde.
— Ma foi, fit-il, essayez toujours, nous vous attendons.
Il se tourna vers Rabevel.
— Monsieur Bartuel, dit-il, notre ennemi le plus acharné et le plus
sympathique. Il est l’œil du syndicat.
— Enchanté de vous connaître, répondit Rabevel.
— Moi aussi, fit l’autre.
— Oh ! moi, répliqua Bernard d’un ton tranquille, vous ne me
connaissez pas encore.
Et comme l’autre se taisait, interloqué :
— Je vois, ajouta-t-il, que vous entretenez d’excellentes relations
avec notre représentant. Il faut que cela continue. Excusez-moi, j’ai
passé une nuit blanche dans le train, je vais me coucher, je vous
laisse.
Mais Me Fougnasse assez inquiet, monta en même temps que
lui.
Le lendemain, au petit jour, ils prirent la diligence et arrivèrent à
Cantaoussel sans incident. La désolation de l’endroit frappa
Bernard ; c’était un plateau noir balayé sans cesse par la bise ; des
pays mornes bornaient son horizon ; pas un arbre dans ces
solitudes ; les ouvriers vivaient, sales et noirs, dans des
baraquements de planches ; Bernard voulut tout voir.
— Rien de bon, dit-il ; toute cette exploitation est mal menée.
Il termina sa visite par les logements ; il vit celui qui lui était
réservé, celui de Me Fougnasse :
— C’est gentil chez vous, dit-il, c’est frais, pas usé ; vous ne
devez pas y être souvent.
L’avocat rougit.
— Je vous jure que je ne vais pour ainsi dire jamais à Issoire ni à
Clermont.
— Qui vous parle d’Issoire ou de Clermont ! Je veux dire que
vous préférez circuler dehors que rester dans votre logement.
Comme vous tournez mal tout ce qu’on dit !
Il s’enferma avec l’ingénieur. Celui-ci, gros homme bredouillant et
agité, se mit à parler immédiatement. Bernard l’écouta avec patience
mais d’un air excédé qui suffit à fermer l’écluse.
— Procédons avec ordre, dit-il alors. Il est évident, et vous le
reconnaissez vous-même, que l’exploitation est mal menée. Je ne
suis pas ingénieur mais je vois le résultat. Des grappes d’hommes
disséminées, des chantiers ouverts de tous côtés sans ordre
apparent, des matériaux dispersés, un roulage insensé, un cheval
pour deux wagonnets et un conducteur qui n’en fout pas un clou,
bien entendu. Si c’est là tout ce que vous savez faire de mieux,
évidemment il faut préparer vos malles.
L’ingénieur hésitait à comprendre.
— Oui, dit Bernard, il faut prendre vos cliques et vos claques et
foutre le camp. C’est-il assez net, Mr. Pagès ?
Et, devant le silence de son interlocuteur :
— Mais, auparavant, me faire comprendre si les tristes résultats
auxquels vous êtes arrivé sont dûs à votre incapacité ou à votre
mauvaise foi. Puisque vous allez partir, vous pouvez bien m’avouer
la vérité. Je vous ferai un bon certificat.
Le pauvre homme était anéanti. Les pleurs lui montaient aux
yeux.
— Ah ! monsieur, dit-il, je comprends que l’exploitation ne vous
plaise pas ; on a pourtant fait de beaux bénéfices à un moment, mais
que voulez-vous ? je ne suis pas le maître, sans quoi on en ferait
encore, vous me comprenez bien ?
— Pas du tout, dit Bernard qui mentait.
— Eh ! oui, monsieur. Je sais bien conduire un chantier. Mais
voilà : Me Fougnasse ne veut pas de chômage, et d’une ; nous
avons de grosses commandes à satisfaire, et de deux ; et Me
Fougnasse m’impose de ne pas travailler sur tel ou tel front de taille
à cause des conventions périmées ou des difficultés avec les
paysans. Je vais tout vous montrer ; je vais vous faire toucher du
doigt les exigences que je dois satisfaire, Monsieur ; vous me direz
alors comment il faut que je fasse et si ça peut être mieux organisé.
— Bien ; c’est tout ce que je voulais savoir. Allez à votre bureau ;
je vous donne une heure pour me rapporter un plan d’exploitation
complet et rationnel ; vous n’avez à tenir compte d’aucune sujétion,
vous entendez, d’aucune sujétion étrangère aux conditions
techniques de votre travail. Votre plan devra prévoir une échelle de
production à quatre gradins : cinquante, cent, deux cents et trois
cents tonnes journalières. S’il me convient, je vous garde. Une heure
vous suffit-elle ?
— Oui, monsieur, répondit Pagès tremblant d’espoir et de crainte.
— Bien. Alors, à tout à l’heure. Envoyez-moi le contremaître.
Un instant après, le contremaître se présentait. C’était une sorte
de gorille géant, avec des yeux de grenouille, où vivait une flamme
malicieuse, dans un visage faussement hébété.
— Retirez votre chapeau, Pépériot, dit Bernard. Vous pouvez
vous asseoir. A l’avenir vous laisserez vos sabots à la porte. Vous
savez que l’exploitation ne va pas. Il y a certainement de votre
faute ; l’ouvrier n’a pas de rendement, il est mal commandé sans
doute et pas content. Allez ; racontez votre petite affaire.
Pépériot comprit au ton que « ça allait barder » ; il pensa qu’il n’y
avait pas à finasser et qu’il valait mieux « déballer ».
— C’est pas ma faute, dit-il, il y a assez longtemps que je suis
sur le trimard et je connais le boulot. Et, les hommes, ça me fait pas
peur. Mais, vrai, on peut pas leur demander ce qu’on peut pas. Dix
fois par jour on change de chantier. Sitôt qu’un croquant vient
gueuler c’est des discussions et des transformations. On dirait que le
Fougnasse il fait exprès. Vous pouvez me foutre à la porte ; je tiens
pas à ce genre de boulot. C’est comme pour faire turbiner les
compagnons, regardez ce qu’ils bouffent à cette cantine et comment
ils sont couchés ; et ils doivent faire deux fois leurs deux kilomètres
pour aller casser la croûte…
— Comment ça ?
— Ben oui ; depuis le mois dernier qu’un naturel il est venu
rouspéter que la cantine était sur son terrain, l’a fallu la transporter à
un kilomètre d’ici sur un terrain communal et encore ce n’est pas sûr
que la commune acceptera de louer.
— Ça suffit. Tu vas aller voir ton ingénieur, Pépériot. Tu
t’arrangeras avec lui et tu prendras vis-à-vis de lui des engagements
fermes de production. Si le tonnage auquel tu t’engages suivant les
conditions d’exploitation et le nombre d’ouvriers que vous fixerez
ensemble me convient, je te garde ; sinon, fais ta malle. En
attendant, envoie-moi le chef comptable.
Pépériot se retira très impressionné. Le chef comptable fut
bientôt là. C’était un homme très jeune, de petite taille, brun de poil,
l’air intelligent, calme et ferme. Il plut beaucoup à Rabevel.
— Vous vous nommez Mr. Georges ; fils naturel, peut-être ?
— Oui, monsieur.
— Où avez-vous appris la comptabilité ?
— A l’orphelinat des Frères à Issoire où j’ai été recueilli,
Bernard, pour la première fois depuis son arrivée, ébaucha un
sourire de contentement, mais il se retint.
— Vous savez que vous avez pour patrons un juif et un
mécréant, dit-il ; je pense que vous ne vous occupez pas de
prosélytisme ni de politique ?
— Monsieur, je suis pratiquant et fermement attaché à mes
devoirs religieux ; j’ai également mes opinions politiques arrêtées.
Mais dans mon travail je ne pense qu’à mon travail. Et, en dehors de
lui, j’ai assez à faire en m’occupant de mes deux aînés que j’instruis
moi-même car j’ai trois enfants dont l’un en bas âge.
— Tout cela est très bien, dit Bernard avec une nuance de
bienveillance. Allons voir vos livres.
Il passa le reste de la matinée avec Georges. Il avait oublié tout
le monde. Enfin ! il se trouvait pour la première fois, depuis les
expertises où il avait aidé le Frère Maninc, en contact avec une
comptabilité pour de bon, une grande comptabilité d’entreprise avec
toutes sortes de comptes où, à chaque article, à chaque fond de
page, se pouvaient être embusqués les erreurs et les
détournements ; et il s’y mouvait avec une aise et une joie sans
bornes. Le chef comptable avait vite vu à qui il avait affaire ; très
épris de son métier, il était ravi d’accueillir un homme compétent :
« A la bonne heure, se disait-il, celui-ci n’est ni banquier, ni
ingénieur ; il sait exactement comment circule l’argent dans la
boutique ; il ne l’attend ni à l’entrée ni à la sortie. » Les remarques de
Bernard le frappèrent ; ce jeune homme indiqua quelques
perfectionnements, quelques simplifications à apporter, lui démontra
la nécessité de tenir à jour certaines statistiques, établit devant lui à
l’aide des éléments comptables une série de prix de revient, rendit
apparents les coefficients cachés de l’entreprise, détermina des
graphiques que Georges reconnut aussitôt indispensables et laissa
finalement l’employé dans l’enthousiasme, la jubilation et le désir de
se perfectionner.
Il alla ensuite déjeuner avec Me Fougnasse à la cantine et se
montra d’une humeur charmante. L’après-midi, il reçut de nouveau
l’ingénieur et le contremaître ; il discuta longuement avec eux et les
étonna par la rapidité de son adaptation ; quand ils eurent fini, le
plan d’exploitation, net, clair et fécond était arrêté. Pagès manifesta
quelques inquiétudes sur l’exécution.
— Je me permets de vous prévenir encore, Monsieur, dit-il, que
les paysans vont venir avec l’huissier.
— J’en fais mon affaire, répondit Bernard. Pour commencer, vous
allez utiliser les diverses clôtures que je vois dans les îlots non
exploités et en faire une enceinte tout autour du terrain concédé.
Avec les vieilles planches, les baraquements pourris, vous me
fermerez ensuite tout cela à hauteur d’homme. Dès que ce travail
sera terminé, redémontage de la cantine et retransport ici, puis
remontage. Dès à présent, envoyez-moi la cantinière.
Celle-ci était une campagnarde entre deux âges qui suffisait avec
trois femmes aux six cents repas journaliers. Elle arriva toute
tremblante.
— Madame Loumegous, dit Bernard, une très grave accusation
pèse sur vous. Il faut dire la vérité ou gare les gendarmes. De quoi
trafiquez-vous ?
— Mais, de rien, Monsieur.
— Allez, allez, pas de rouspétance. L’aveu ou la prison.
— Je vous assure… » Bernard alla à la porte du bureau, et,
s’adressant à une personne imaginaire :
— Je crois que je ne pourrai pas lui pardonner, brigadier ; je vais
vous l’abandonner…
La femme se jeta à genoux :
— Non, monsieur, je vous en supplie, pas les gendarmes.
Bernard referma la porte.
— Allez, dit-il rudement, crachez le morceau.
— Ce n’est pas moi, monsieur. C’est Monsieur Fougnasse qui me
fait signer pour cent kilos de viande quand il n’y en a que soixante-
quinze. Pareil pour le vin, pour les légumes, pour tout. Alors, les
repas, je suis bien obligée de m’arranger comme je peux ; on retient
aux ouvriers, dame, ils ne sont pas contents, mais ce n’est pas ma
faute, je le jure sur la tête de ma fille.
— Vous le diriez devant Me Fougnasse, tout cela ?
— Ah ! oui, pour sûr que j’en ai assez de me damner comme ça ;
je savais bien que ça finirait par craquer.
Bernard fit appeler l’avocat.
— J’en sais assez, lui dit-il, devant la femme, pour vous envoyer
coucher au violon ce soir. Je vous épargne. Je me contente de vous
consigner dans votre chambre jusqu’à nouvel ordre.
Me Fougnasse voulut parler.
— Permettez…
— Assez, dit Bernard ; ou les gendarmes.
L’avocat se tut. Rabevel appela Georges.
— Vous ferez clouer la fenêtre de Monsieur par l’extérieur, dit-il,
et vous mettrez un homme de garde à sa porte. Revenez aussitôt
après.
Et quand il revint :
— Je m’absente pour quelques jours. Considérez-vous comme
mon remplaçant ; je vais faire une note de service dans ce sens.
Choisissez six de vos meilleurs ouvriers, donnez-leur un brassard et
une casquette, une canne et un revolver ; faites-les assermenter à
Issoire ; ce seront nos gardes. Sous aucun prétexte ne laissez entrer
huissier ni paysans. Mettez des écriteaux. Procès-verbal dressé à
tout croquant dont les bêtes ou les bergers pénétreront chez nous.
Si on viole la clôture appelez les gendarmes et faites constater
l’effraction et le viol de domicile. Ouvrez la correspondance et
préparez les réponses. Suivez de très près le mouvement que va
subir le prix de revient avec notre nouveau plan d’exploitation.
Il partit aussitôt pour Clermont-Ferrand ; il se rendit à la Place et
à la Préfecture, mena une enquête discrète, finit par apprendre ce
qu’il voulait, partit pour Lyon, arriva à la Poudrerie de Sorgues,
demanda à parler au Directeur d’urgence et fut reçu.
— Monsieur le Directeur, lui dit-il, j’ai appris qu’à la suite du
nouveau programme de fabrication qui a suivi le dernier incident de
frontière, les Poudreries construisaient de nouveaux ateliers, tous
revêtus d’asphalte ou de bitume. Je puis vous offrir de ces matières
à des prix très intéressants.
— Je regrette beaucoup, répondit le directeur, j’ai passé mes
marchés.
Et, devant le visible ennui de Bernard :
— Mais mon collègue de Saint-Chamas n’a pas trouvé jusqu’à
présent de fournisseur ; il m’a écrit (et je ne lui ai pas encore
répondu), pour me demander des renseignements à ce sujet. Allez
donc le voir.
Bernard sortit en remerciant. Comme il traversait la cour, un
chargement d’asphalte attira son regard, une pancarte s’y balançait :
Jarny et Cie. Il n’eut pas une seconde d’hésitation ; il retourna aux
bureaux, se rendit au service de la Comptabilité.
— Monsieur, dit-il à un employé, je suis le comptable de Jarny et
Cie. Je viens voir au sujet de notre mandatement. Est-ce qu’il est
prêt ?
— Vous ne voudriez pas, répondit l’homme en riant, c’est à peine
si vous nous avez fourni cinq wagons !
— Oui, mais en voilà qui arrivent encore aujourd’hui, cela va vite,
vous savez, pour nous. Tenez, voulez-vous, je vous prie, que nous
regardions le relevé de factures ? Je parie que nous vous en avons
envoyé déjà près de cent tonnes ?
L’employé sans méfiance alla chercher le dossier ; Bernard, dès
qu’il eut vu ce qu’il voulait voir, c’est à dire les prix de vente, ne
songea plus qu’à s’excuser et à s’en aller. En wagon il faisait son
calcul : évidemment, il fallait baisser sur le chiffre de Jarny pour
emporter des commandes, mais cela se pouvait ; si seulement on
avait le moyen d’aller en gare directement par voie ferrée de
Cantaoussel à la petite station de Mérugnet ! « Il faudra que j’y
songe » se dit-il.
Le lendemain soir il arrivait à Saint-Chamas, traitait avec le
directeur, et, sur son conseil, s’arrêtait au retour à Nîmes, Toulouse,
Montauban et Bordeaux où il enlevait pour les casernes ou les
Poudreries de fortes commandes atteignant au total le million. Il
rentra harassé à Cantaoussel.
Dès qu’il arriva, il fit appeler Me Fougnasse.
— Vous êtes libre, lui dit-il. Allez au diable. Mais tâchez que je
n’entende plus parler de vous, sans quoi vous savez qu’un
gendarme vous pend au nez comme un sifflet de deux sous. Et, je
vous en prie, pas un mot car j’ai des fourmis dans les doigts. Signez-
moi toutefois cette petite reconnaissance de vol.
Me Fougnasse signa en tremblant et disparut. Monsieur Georges
fit son rapport. Tout s’était bien passé. Quelques paysans étaient
venus, avaient été expulsés sans douceur et étaient repartis surpris.
Le matin même, Monsieur Bartuel était arrivé d’Issoire pour voir
« ces Messieurs », mais n’avait pas été reçu. Le sentiment qui
paraissait dominer était la stupeur. Le travail marchait bien.
Bernard alla faire son tour de chantier. Tout lui sembla
satisfaisant et il en complimenta l’ingénieur et le contremaître qu’il
sentait tous deux dociles et sensibles. Puis il demanda à Pagès :
— Dites-moi, cette station de chemin de fer que nous apercevons
là-bas à nos pieds, c’est bien Mérugnet ?
— Oui, Monsieur.
— Est-ce qu’on ne pourrait pas faire un plan incliné à voie de
cinquante ou de soixante pour descendre nos marchandises ?
— Ah ! monsieur, dit Pagès, j’y ai pensé plus d’une fois. Le
charroi mange le plus clair de nos bénéfices. Malheureusement, il y
a trois obstacles : le prix d’établissement, la longueur de ce travail, et
la méchanceté ou l’avarice des propriétaires des terrains à
emprunter. Si seulement nous avions eu la chance des Daumail !
— Qui est-ce, les Daumail ?
— Tenez, monsieur, voyez, à deux cents mètres de nous, à mi-
hauteur du plateau et à notre droite, ces carrières de basalte. Elles
sont aux Daumail. Eux avaient la chance de posséder le flanc de
coteau situé entre la gare et la carrière ; et ils ont pu établir une
petite voie. Voyez, on la distingue, bien que la végétation la recouvre
par endroits.
— On ne travaille donc plus à ces carrières ?
— Non, il y a procès, séquestre, tout le tremblement ; ils n’ont pas
pu tenir le coup.
— Ainsi, dit Bernard qui suivait son idée, avec deux cents mètres
de voie et un petit terrassement, nous pourrions joindre leur plan
incliné ? Faites-moi vite un petit projet et un avant-prix de revient.
Le soir même il arrêtait définitivement ses décisions ; il
convoquait pour le surlendemain les propriétaires des terrains ; il
demandait un rendez-vous aux Daumail et au séquestre pour la
semaine suivante. Il alla se coucher content.
Le lendemain matin il paressa dans sa cabane de planches
froide ; il écrivit dans son lit une lettre pour Blinkine et Mulot en leur
faisant le rapport circonstancié de ses démarches : « Peut-être,
terminait-il plaisamment, ai-je outrepassé les pouvoirs que je tenais
de vous, mais je jure que j’ai sauvé la République ». Au petit
déjeuner, la mère Loumegous lui remit une lettre qui lui avait été
adressée à Paris ; il reconnut l’écriture d’Angèle sur la suscription et
celle de Noë sur la surcharge. Il trembla. Quelle mésaventure, quelle
peine en perspective ! Des embêtements quand tout allait si bien ! Il
ouvrit l’enveloppe. Elle contenait ceci :
Mon pauvre Bernard,
Comment ai-je pu aimer un aussi abject personnage ?

Comment ai-je pu vous préférer à un être aussi droit que
François ? Trouvez ici l’expression de mon profond dégoût.
A.
— Je m’en fous, dit-il à voix haute. Et comme il se sentait mordu

au cœur, il se hâta, avec une sorte de frénésie inconsciente, de
répéter encore :
— Je m’en fous et je m’en fous ; oui, et je m’en contrefous. Mais
de toute la journée, malgré le travail auquel il se livra tout entier, un
rongeur ne cessa dans le plus traître de l’âme son travail secret. Il se
coucha exténué ; toute sa nuit ne fut qu’un long regret, un soupir
sans fin, une douleur orageuse et un appel au dieu consolateur.
— L’agonie au Jardin des Olives, ce devait être quelque chose
comme cela, se disait-il, mi-ironique, mi-convaincu, le matin, en
contemplant dans la glace ses traits tirés et ses yeux cernés. Enfin,
n’y pensons plus ; c’est fini, c’est fini.
Mais le regret et il ne savait quel espoir, quelle clandestine
certitude que cet amour, le seul, il le sentait bien, chevillé à lui, à sa
vie, ne pouvait disparaître définitivement, tout cela l’agitait et
l’empêchait de faire quoi que ce fût. Il était absent de tout ; assis à
son bureau, il rêvait du divin visage et écrivait le nom bien aimé sur
les buvards. Il ne se ressaisit qu’au déjeuner. L’ennemi allait arriver ;
il s’agissait de le bien recevoir.
Les propriétaires convoqués, une trentaine de personnes, se
présentèrent en effet au début de l’après-midi ; Bernard les accueillit
dans le réfectoire.
— Vous m’excuserez, leur dit-il, de vous faire entrer dans un
réfectoire, mais je n’aurais pas de pièce assez grande ; cela nous
permettra d’ailleurs de faire tranquillement notre collation tout à
l’heure ; vous m’autoriserez en effet, je l’espère, à vous offrir un petit
reconstituant car il y en a parmi vous qui viennent de fort loin et ont
besoin de se réconforter ; d’ailleurs nous sommes des associés, pas
vrai ? et même j’espère que nous serons des amis.
Un des auditeurs se leva aussitôt en qui Bernard reconnut le
Bartuel du soir :
— Votre exorde est très joli, dit cet homme, mais nous préférons
des actes et des arrangements. La situation ne nous convient pas du
tout. Nous…
Rabevel qui compulsait des papiers sur la table isolée devant
laquelle il était assis, l’interrompit :
— Qui êtes-vous d’abord ? dit-il rudement.
— Mais… je suis monsieur Bartuel, d’Issoire.
— Eh bien ! je regrette très vivement, mais vous n’avez rien à
faire ici ; vous ne figurez pas sur la liste de nos propriétaires.
— Ah ? dit l’autre d’un air de triomphe, eh bien ! Monsieur, et
ceci ?
Il tendit un papier sur lequel Bernard jeta les yeux.
— Ceci, répondit-il, est la copie d’un acte de vente ; vous avez
acquis une parcelle de cent mètres carrés de Monsieur Boutaric…
vente fictive naturellement, hé ?… enfin cela n’a pas d’importance ;
vente effectuée hier, bigre !… Il ne vous reste plus qu’à filer,
monsieur Bartuel.
— Comment, à filer ? ne suis-je pas propriétaire d’une parcelle
des terrains que vous occupez ?
— Quel âge avez-vous donc, monsieur ? Lisez la convention qui
nous lie à Mr. Boutaric et vous verrez que toute vente éventuelle doit
sauvegarder nos droits. Votre contrat est irrecevable. Je vous prie de
sortir.
L’intrus s’exécuta assez confus. Bernard s’adressa alors à Mr.
Boutaric :
— Comment avez-vous pu, lui dit-il gentiment, vous laisser
embobiner par ce chercheur d’histoires ? Allons, nous voici entre
nous, expliquons-nous donc à cœur ouvert. Qu’est-ce que vous
voulez ? vous ne le savez pas ? moi je vais vous le dire :
« Il existe un Syndicat dont le président est Mr. Orsat et dont les
principaux membres sont Mr. Bourdoufle, le notaire, et M. Tanèque,
l’adjoint au Maire de Clermont. Ce Syndicat réunit les propriétaires
d’asphaltières et de carrières de la région. Or nous, nous possédons
la meilleure asphaltière et la mieux placée ; nous pouvons donc faire
des prix qui rendent la concurrence impossible. Il faut nous
empêcher de travailler. On vous a donc proposé d’entrer dans le
Syndicat, en faisant miroiter à vos yeux toutes sortes de bénéfices. Il
s’agit maintenant pour vous d’agir. Comment se présente la
situation ? Nous ne sommes pas propriétaires du terrain : vous étiez
trop intelligents pour nous céder cela à un prix modique ; et, pour
l’acheter à sa valeur, nulle société ne serait assez riche. Il a donc
fallu le louer et nous vous l’avons loué à un prix ferme de tant
augmenté d’une redevance par tonne extraite ; le tout suivant
conventions valables trente ans et renouvelables suivant accord des
deux parties. Ces conventions établies au moment de la constitution
de la société s’échelonnent pendant six années, délai qui sépare les
signatures de la première et de la dernière. La première convention
n’est plus valable depuis trois ans, la dernière est encore valable
pendant trois ans. Tout ceci est exact, n’est-ce pas ?
— Oui, oui, répondirent les auditeurs.
— Je continue. Dès que le Syndicat a vu arriver, il y a quatre ans,
la période d’expiration, il s’est mis en campagne et la conclusion fut
la suivante : aucun des propriétaires n’a voulu renouveler la
convention. Notre société a passé outre ; d’où procès, constats
d’huissiers, empêchements de travail, etc., etc… vous en savez
autant et plus que moi là-dessus. L’affaire s’est compliquée du fait
que le directeur local de notre société était secrètement à la solde du
Syndicat, ce dont j’ai eu la preuve formelle dès mon arrivée.
Et, notant les marques de surprise et les sourires, Bernard ajouta
gentiment :
— Vous voyez que je sais tout ; nous n’avons rien à nous cacher ;
j’ai flanqué le nommé Fougnasse à la porte et nous sommes entre
nous. Rien de changé, vous pouvez parler à cœur ouvert et nous
sommes faits pour nous entendre. La seule différence dans la
situation c’est que, au lieu de suivre le Syndicat avec Fougnasse
vous suivrez ma Société avec moi ; et cela parce que c’est votre
intérêt. Je vais vous montrer cela tout à l’heure. En attendant,
comme vous me faites sécher la gorge avec tant de paroles et que
beaucoup d’entre vous ont besoin de se refaire un peu, nous allons
laisser là les affaires et trinquer ensemble.
Les propriétaires, tous paysans ou hobereaux, approuvèrent
bruyamment. Bernard fit servir une collation et recommanda aux
serveuses de ne laisser aucun verre à demi plein. Quand la chaleur
communicative des banquets se fut établie il alla de l’un à l’autre,
jaugeant immédiatement le caractère et la valeur de chacun ; il
s’attacha particulièrement à la conquête d’un vétérinaire et d’un curé
dont il devinait l’influence et qui lui parurent encore fort indécis au
moment où il les entreprit. Sa bonne grâce, son sourire, l’admiration
qu’inspiraient à ces rustres la précocité de son jugement et de sa
fermeté, lui assurèrent enfin la bonne volonté de tous. Quand il
pensa les avoir à peu près dans sa main, il reprit :
— Comment se présente maintenant la situation ? De deux
choses l’une : ou nous renouvelons ensemble les conventions ou
nous ne les renouvelons pas. Où est votre intérêt ? Nous allons voir.
Je dois vous dire d’abord que j’ai des marchés pour plusieurs
millions avec le Ministère de la Guerre, marchés renouvelables ; je
m’offre à vous donner la preuve de la vérité de ce fait ; ces marchés
sont signés d’avant-hier. Voilà donc du travail assuré, c’est-à-dire de
l’exploitation et un revenu certain pour vous pendant plusieurs
années. J’ajoute que les mesures prises par moi ont abaissé encore
mon prix de revient en sorte que, à l’heure actuelle, plus que jamais,
aucune concurrence n’est possible ; et une nouvelle installation qui
ne va pas tarder couronnera l’œuvre avant peu ; je n’en peux rien
dire pour le moment.
« Donc, si nous renouvelons les conventions, vous êtes assurés
que, tant qu’on aura besoin d’asphalte, c’est vous qui serez les
premiers appelés à fournir ; d’ores et déjà vous avez la certitude de
votre revenu pour plusieurs années.
« Et si vous ne renouvelez pas ? c’est très simple. Ma conduite
ne changera pas d’une ligne. Vous enverrez l’huissier ? Il ne verra
rien ; la concession est palissadée et votre huissier n’entrera pas :
frais inutiles. Vous ferez constater que votre terre est dans l’enclos
occupé par nous ? Il vous faudra convoquer outre l’huissier, le
préposé au cadastre, le garde champêtre et un expert géomètre :
nouveaux frais inutiles. Vous essayerez d’entrer ? Non : car sans
compter les chiens qui pourraient vous vacciner aux fesses, il y a les
gardes assermentés, les gendarmes et alors cela devient de la
correctionnelle ; vous êtes trop sages pour y penser. Bien ; avec vos
exploits vous allez devant le tribunal : nous sommes disposés à
poursuivre jusqu’au Conseil d’État : durée vingt ans, frais énormes.
Vous nous appelez en référé ? nous répondons que vous ne pouvez
motiver aucune urgence et enfin nous invoquons la nécessité de
remplir les obligations d’un marché intéressant la Défense Nationale.
Bien entendu, pendant toute la durée de la procédure, nous
prendrons votre asphalte et vous mangerez la redevance chez les
gens de loi. D’autre part, vous pensez bien que c’est nous qui
aurons raison en vertu du fait que nous travaillons pour la Défense
Nationale.
« Voilà ce que j’ai à vous dire. Choisissez. La paix profitable ou la
guerre. La guerre et vous mangez tout. La paix et vous gagnez tout ;
et nous sommes amis, et vous venez me voir ici en copains,
regarder votre exploitation, faire le tour du propriétaire. Allons,
voyons, il n’y a pas à hésiter. Les nouvelles conventions sont toutes
prêtes. Madame Loumegous, versez le champagne, on va signer. »
Parmi le brouhaha des hésitants, Mr. Georges apporta les
papiers timbrés tout prêts. Bernard circulait de groupe en groupe.
— Eh ! Monsieur le curé, dit-il, il faudra venir bénir nos
installations le plus tôt possible. Je compte absolument sur vous.
Non pas cette semaine, la prochaine ; il faut laisser le temps à ces
dames d’achever la chasuble que… Mais chut ! j’en ai trop dit.
Et au vétérinaire :
— Ce n’est pas une signature que je vais vous demander, mon
cher Docteur, mais deux ; car je tiens à m’assurer vos services ; je
désire que vous organisiez ici une écurie modèle et une visite
régulière pour notre cavalerie.
Avec un paysan, il jetait les bases d’un marché d’avoine ; avec un
autre d’un marché de foin ; avec un troisième d’un marché de paille ;
il convint avec un charron de l’entretien du matériel roulant.
Naturellement il choisissait ses têtes. En fin de compte, le
champagne bu, toutes les conventions étaient renouvelées pour
cinquante ans. D’ici là, songea-t-il, le roi, l’âne ou moi…
Sur la porte, il fit ses adieux à ses hôtes, émus, un peu ivres ; il
connaissait déjà leurs petites histoires, le nom de leurs enfants et ne
se trompa pas en les priant « d’emmener la prochaine fois le petit
Zanou » « ou la petite Marissotte qui doit être si éveillée, pour faire
connaissance… » Tous ces finauds le trouvèrent « ben malin et ben
honnête, pour sûr » et s’en retournèrent enchantés. Bernard, rêveur,
rentra dans son bureau.
— « Vingt et un ans depuis un mois, se dit-il à mi-voix en jetant
un regard sur les éphémérides, vingt et un ans ! »
Il prit dans sa main les marchés et les conventions :
« Tout cela à mon nom, bien entendu ; ça représente bien cent
mille francs ; il va falloir s’aligner avec les patrons… » Il sourit avec
tranquillité. La vie était belle.
Le lendemain, il eut avec les Daumail et leur séquestre une
entrevue orageuse. Les Daumail n’accepteraient pas qu’une
servitude fût créée. Le séquestre prétendait que sa mission ne
l’autorisait pas à consentir l’usage de la chose conservée.
— C’est bien simple, dit Bernard ; si vous acceptez, je fais avec
vous un contrat à redevance pour une durée déterminée : donc,
l’argument de la servitude ne tient pas ; je prends l’entretien de la
voie à ma charge dans la proportion où j’emploie cette voie : donc je
conserve mieux que vous, séquestre, et même je fais rapporter de
l’argent à votre chose séquestrée. Et maintenant, si vous n’acceptez
pas, je passe outre : j’ai des marchés importants pour le Ministère de
la Guerre et fort pressés ; je demanderai une réquisition.
Mais les autres ne voulurent rien entendre. Bernard sortit furieux
de l’Hôtel d’Issoire où s’était tenue leur conversation ; il aperçut,
comme il passait la porte, Monsieur Bartuel qui semblait attendre en
causant avec un gros monsieur grisonnant : « Bon ! se dit-il, je
comprends ». Il alla droit à eux, le cœur enflé de colère : « Monsieur
Bartuel, fit-il avec une rage concentrée, je vous donne quinze jours
pour venir faire ami ; sinon je vous casserai ». Et comme l’autre
ouvrit la bouche : « Je vous casserai », répéta-t-il. Il se rendit
immédiatement chez le vétérinaire qui se trouva être en tournée. Il
l’attendit deux heures avec une impatience fébrile dans un petit
salon campagnard médiocre et humide qui lui donnait la nausée.
Quand il arriva : « Ne dételez pas, Mr. Frayssé, nous partons pour
Cantaoussel ». En route, il lui expliqua son plan : « Il faut
immédiatement m’enlever les quarante chevaux de l’exploitation, les
coller chez des amis à la campagne, faire à la Préfecture une
déclaration de fièvre aphteuse et signifier l’interdiction d’employer de
la cavalerie pendant trois mois en même temps que toutes les
mesures coutumières de désinfection et de prophylaxie. Bien
entendu, vous ne perdrez ni votre temps ni votre peine ».
Le vétérinaire fit quelques difficultés dont les promesses eurent
vite raison. En trois jours, les chevaux eurent disparu ; Bernard refit
la tournée de ses clients, fit connaître à la Préfecture le cas
désespéré, suggéra la solution, obtint de l’Intendance la réquisition.
Moins de quinze jours après le raccordement était fait, les
wagonnets roulaient sur les plans inclinés des Daumail. Ceux-ci
s’avouèrent vaincus et firent la paix contre une redevance de
passage inférieure de moitié à celle que leur avait offerte d’abord
Bernard. Les chevaux revinrent comme par enchantement, leur
nombre devant suffire à peine au trafic intérieur des chantiers en
raison de l’intensité croissante de l’exploitation. Le soir du jour où le
premier train de wagonnets chargé d’asphalte et portant en proue et
en poupe un petit drapeau tricolore arrivait en gare de Mérugnet,
deux hommes demandèrent à monter à Cantaoussel par le moyen
de la rame vide que remorquait le convoi chargé descendant. Arrivés
sur le plateau, ils se présentèrent à Rabevel ; c’étaient Bartuel et son
compagnon grisonnant qui se nomma.
— Ah ! Monsieur Orsat, dit Bernard, vraiment je suis heureux de
vous connaître. Vous m’avez bien donné du mal ; et cette vieille
ficelle aussi, ajouta-t-il avec une rudesse cordiale en frappant sur
l’épaule de Bartuel qui se sentit flatté. Entrez chez moi, nous serons
mieux pour causer.
Il déploya toutes ses grâces, fit le siège de cet Orsat en qui il
voyait un des éléments importants de son avenir ; il l’amena à se
raconter suffisamment pour que, jointes aux discours de Bartuel, ses
déclarations le lui eussent à peu près représenté. Il découvrit dans
son interlocuteur un grand propriétaire, intelligent, lettré, un peu
timide et très fin ; il comprit que ce rentier risquait son superflu en
spéculations sur les biens fonciers, les terrains, les immeubles, les
chemins de fer départementaux ; et que le machiavélisme lui
manquait pour conduire contre des adversaires roués une affaire
aussi délicate que ce Syndicat où il s’était aventuré. Il lui parut
même sentir un peu de désarroi dans la conversation de son
partenaire.
— Enfin, lui dit-il, quand ils eurent bavardé un moment, que
voulez-vous de moi, Messieurs ?
— Mais rien, répondit Mr. Orsat avec embarras ; Mr. Bartuel est
venu faire ami comme vous dites car nous désirons vivre en bonne
intelligence et je l’ai accompagné.
— Et je vous en remercie ; mais encore ?
Mr. Orsat resta muet.
— Je vous comprends, reprit Bernard ; vous cherchez un terrain
d’entente. C’est très simple. Vous ne pouvez rien sans moi et je puis
tout sans vous. Alors, que voulez-vous que je fasse avec vous ?
Et comme les autres levaient les bras au ciel :
— A moins que… A moins que nous organisions un service
commercial qui nous apporte des affaires pour tous ; et cela n’est
possible que si nous unifions nos prix de vente, autrement dit si
j’augmente mes prix, puisque mon prix est bien inférieur au vôtre. Je
vois bien votre avantage, évidemment. Nous quintuplons le volume
des affaires, nous formons trust, nous dictons nos cours et nous
partageons les commandes dans les chantiers au prorata de leur
capacité. Mais où est mon bénéfice là-dedans ?
— Il ne serait pas oublié, dit doucement Mr. Orsat. Venez donc
déjeuner dimanche à Clermont, nous causerons de tout cela.
— Ma foi, je veux bien, répondit Rabevel en se levant. A
dimanche.
Il se sentait sur le chemin de la fortune, mais voulait ne rien faire
voir de sa joie. Il fit atteler au convoi descendant une plateforme où
prirent place ses visiteurs ; maîtrisant sa joie, il leur souhaita bon
voyage avec une froideur courtoise ; cependant, à un virage, comme
Mr. Orsat, ayant légèrement tourné la tête, lui faisait de la main un
signe amical il ne put se tenir soudain d’agiter son chapeau en un
grand geste joyeux.
Il attendit le dimanche avec une impatience d’enfant. Il se leva
aux premiers rayons du jour. Le mois d’Octobre finissant dorait les
rares ramures de la vallée ; le noir plateau pâlissait et semblait
moins rude. Bernard procéda à sa toilette avec un soin minutieux ; il
essaya toutes ses cravates et ne descendit à la station que lorsqu’il
se crut bien assuré que sa tenue ne détonerait en rien devant celle
d’un gentleman bien habillé comme l’était, par exemple, son ami
Abraham.
A la gare, il eut la surprise de voir venir le sire Bartuel au devant
de lui.
— Je vous attendais, Monsieur Rabevel ; figurez-vous que j’ai
pensé à une chose intéressante pour quelqu’un qui sait comprendre
comme vous ; parce que vous, je crois que vous savez
comprendre…
— Oui, répondit Bernard, je sais comprendre et payer ce que ça
vaut. Mais pour le moment, pas de malentendu, hein ? vous avez
d’abord essayé de nous posséder, vous n’y avez pas réussi, nous
sommes quittes. Nous sommes d’accord ?
L’homme fit une moue, mais en fin de compte, approuva.
— Bon. Maintenant si vous m’apportez quelque chose qui soit à
la fois intéressant et nouveau, je ferai ce qu’il faudra ; et, vous savez,
je suis homme de parole.
— Naturellement, pour la discrétion…
— Un tombeau. Voici le train. Vous retournez à Issoire sans
doute. Oui. Montons dans ce compartiment vide ; nous voilà
installés. Allez-y, je vous écoute.
— Voilà. Mr. Orsat ne vous a pas tout dit et ne peut pas tout vous
dire. Les centres asphaltifères du Syndicat sont tous, plus ou moins,
en enclave dans des biens communaux et ne peuvent arriver à une
bonne exploitation que s’il intervient un accord au sujet de ces biens
communaux. Malheureusement, les communes dépendent du Préfet
et celui-ci a un censeur terrible qui est le Conseil général. Or,
comme toujours, la minorité quand elle est agissante est toute-
puissante dans les Assemblées ; et ici la minorité d’opposition
réclame l’exploitation directe, par le département, des asphaltières
situées sur les territoires communaux ; elle s’oppose à tout octroi de
facilités aux capitalistes exploiteurs et à la classe possédante. D’où
l’interdiction de passer sur les terrains communaux qui environnent
les asphaltières en chantier, interdiction de découvrir celles-ci, toutes
sortes de difficultés qui expliquent en partie les prix de revient
prohibitifs que vous connaissez.
— Alors ?
— Alors, il faudrait désarmer l’opposition.
— Combien sont-ils ?
— Un seul qui compte : Soudouli.
— Soudouli ? l’ami du prolétaire ? demanda Bernard avec un ton
de naïveté dont il se gourmanda aussitôt.
— Il a pris goût aux truffes, répondit l’autre.
— Mais comment l’atteindre ?
— Je le connais assez pour vous aboucher.
— Comment se fait-il qu’Orsat…
— C’est son ennemi politique.
— Bon. Conclusion : quand et comment ?
— Très simple. Je retiendrai pour ce soir deux chambres
communicantes à l’Hôtel de Jaude ; venez-y vers sept heures, en
vous voyant arriver dans le vestibule j’en décommande une que
vous prendrez. Après dîner, vers dix heures, j’emmènerai Soudouli
et nous pourrons causer.
— Eh bien ! c’est entendu.
— Qu’est-ce que vous me réserverez ?
— C’est à voir ; en tous cas, ce sera en raison inverse de ce
qu’exigera Soudouli. A vous de le travailler.

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Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar

Principles and Application 1st Edition

Nonlinear Ocean Dynamics: Synthetic Aperture Radar 1st

Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar Remote Sensing:

Advanced Algorithms for Mineral and Hydrocarbon

Principles of Modern Radar Basic Principles 2nd Edition

Routledge Handbook of Disinformation and National

Simulations in Medicine Computer aided Diagnostics and

Synthetic Data for Deep Learning: Generate Synthetic

Synthetic Data for Deep Learning: Generate Synthetic

Principles and Application

Series Editorial Advisory Board:

Accepted for inclusion in Scopus.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6477

ISSN 1567-3200 ISSN 2215-1842 (electronic)

bling such a long overdue book on polarimetric SAR applications.

Dear readers and colleagues,

Pioneering Space-Borne SAR Interferometry

Organising Airborne Polarimetric SAR Campaigns and Scientific Studies

Dialoguing with POLinSAR Scientists and Training the Next Generation

polarimetric data for science and applications development.

Pioneering Space-Borne SAR Polarimetric Interferometry

operated successfully. Following the recommendations of scientists at POLinSAR, campaigns

From Science to Applications

Yves-Louis Desnos and Irena Hajnsek

Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany Irena Hajnsek

1 Basic Principles of SAR Polarimetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

α Absolute angle (polarisation ellipse)

InSAR SAR interferometry

Abstract information. As a result, the ﬁrst part presents the so-called

Polarimetry refers speciﬁcally to the vector nature of the 2 3 2 3

# The Author(s) 2021 1

Finally, δx and δy represent the wave phases in each compo-

" # (" jδx # )

E y E0y jðδy δy Þ 1.1.1.2 Totally and Partially Polarized Waves

from the scattering process for one component of the electric  

wave can be represented as ¼ ð1:20Þ

12 Considering what has been indicated, an electromagnetic

Table 1.5 Polarization states expressed in the circular polarization basis fb

z As observed, there are different points that need to be

   " # In the backscattering case, due to the reciprocity theorem,

Fig. 1.4 (a) FSA and (b) BSA a b

concerned, as the scattering matrix relates the Jones vectors

Canonical body Diagram Scattering matrix

of the Pauli basis, or scattering components, are orthogonal.

As in the case of kl kT T

those targets presenting an extent larger than the radar cover-

hand, if N is considered as a constant value, provided that it is

models have been proposed in the literature, for instance:

to different polarizations of the incident wave. For back- k ¼ ½ S1 , S2 , . . . , Sm  T ð1:96Þ

texture. As for one-dimensional SAR imagery, some of these n n n

6n jS1k j2 S S ⋯ S1k Smk 7

1 extract physical information from observed multidimensional

The distribution presented in (1.102) is denoted by 1.2.4 The Polarimetric Covariance

SAR data processing, and especially in PolSAR, together

establishment of relations between the physical properties of ð1:104Þ

respectively. In the case of a monostatic system conﬁgura- and

alternatives that improve the multilook approach in such a

from the scattering process for one component of the electric

12 Considering what has been indicated, an electromagnetic

" # In the backscattering case, due to the reciprocity theorem,

As in the case of kl kT T

to different polarizations of the incident wave. For back- k ¼ ½ S1 , S2 , . . . , Sm T ð1:96Þ

6n jS1k j2 S S ⋯ S1k Smk 7