ENHANCED MILITARY TARGET DISCRIMINATION USING ACTIVE AND

PASSIVE POLARIMETRIC IMAGERY

Daniel A. Lavigne1, Mélanie Breton2, Mario Pichette1, Vincent Larochelle1, Jean-Robert Simard1
1
Defence Research and Development Canada – Valcartier
2459 Pie-XI Blvd. North, Quebec, Qc, Canada G3J 1X5
Phone: (418) 844-4000 ext. 4157, Fax: (418) 844-4511, Email: daniel.lavigne@drdc-rddc.gc.ca
2
AEREX Avionics Inc.
36 du Ruisseau, suite 102, Breakeyville, Qc, Canada G0S 1E2

ABSTRACT
Surveillance operations often make use of electro-optic
(EO) imaging systems to detect civilian and military targets.
To increase the overall target detection performance, such
active/passive EO sensors could exploit the polarization of
light as additional information to discriminate man made
objects against different backgrounds. The target contrast
enhancement obtained by analyzing the polarization of the
reflected light from either a direct polarized laser source as
encountered in active imagers, or from natural ambient
illumination, can be used for such target discrimination
scheme. This paper reports results from field experiments
exploiting polarization-based imaging sensors to enhance
the detection of man made objects. Active and passive
polarimetric signatures of objects have been acquired at
wavelengths in the near and long-wave infrared bands.
Results demonstrate to what extent and under which
illumination and environmental conditions the exploitation
of active/passive polarimetric images is suitable to enable
target discrimination.
property that man made objects depolarize less the incident
radiation than natural objects do. However, while the
polarization of light has been used and studied in the past
for numerous applications, the understanding of the
polarization phenomenology taking place with targets used
in cluttered backgrounds requires additional
experimentations. Specifically, the target contrast
enhancement obtained by analyzing the polarization of the
reflected light from either a direct polarized laser source as
encountered in active imagers, or from natural ambient
illumination, needs further investigation. Considering that
infrared polarization contrast can still exist even when the
temperature difference between the target and its
background is negligible, it might be useful to process the
state of the polarization of the emitted and collected
radiation in the near and long-wave infrared (NIR and
LWIR) bands [1]. The contrast associated with man made
objects should therefore be enhanced and thus, target
discrimination performance increased.
2. POLARIMETRIC IMAGING SENSORS

Index Terms— Polarimetric imaging, contrast
enhancement, target discrimination
1. INTRODUCTION
Electro-optic (EO) imaging sensors are commonly used to
gather information about a scene, in order to detect different
targets for applications like surveillance operations and
rescue missions. Active and passive polarimetric imaging
devices have the potential to enhance the target detection
performance of traditional EO sensors, by exploiting the
polarization of light to provide additional information about
given targets of interest. Active polarimetric imagers, for
instance, proved particularly efficient at night and in
degraded weather conditions, building on the well known
Two polarimetric imaging systems have been used for the
experiments: the VIZIR (Visible Infrared) system operating
in the near infrared and LWIR (Long Wave InfraRed), a
CO2 laser-based system operating in the long-wave infrared
spectral band.
2.1 VIZIR imaging sensor
The VIZIR imaging sensor is made up of a range-gated
intensified CCD camera with a 10X zoom lens, a laser diode
array illuminator, and the requisite electronics required for
system synchronization and control. The operating
wavelength is a laser source at 860 nm and offered the
possibility to select its laser divergence between two
discrete values of 2-15 degrees, while the camera FOV was

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continuously variable between 4 and 33 degrees. The
camera intensifier is a Gen III Omnibus IV tube with a
spectral response peaked between 650 and 850 nm. Figure 1
illustrates the VIZIR system combined with the LWIR one.
Figure 1. VIZIR and LWIR imaging sensors (front view)
2.2 LWIR imaging sensor
The Long Wave InfraRed (LWIR) system is made up of a
bolometer infrared camera and a Synrad CO2 laser
illuminator operating in the far-infrared portion of the
spectrum at 10.6 μm, with a divergence of 5 degrees while
the camera FOV was fixed at 20 degrees. The camera is an
uncooled microbolometer E6000 from Nytech with a
spectral response between 8 and 12 μm but peaked at 11
μm. A filter peaked at 10.6 μm with a bandwidth of 600 nm
can be flipped in the system receiver. Figure 2 shows a
close-up view of the LWIR sensor.
Figure 2. LWIR sensor (close-up view)
3. METHODOLOGY
The main objective of the experiments was to acquire
polarimetric signatures of a large set of civilian and military
targets, using two different imaging systems, and investigate
the use of these signatures to discriminate targets against
different backgrounds. The target contrast enhancement is
obtained by analyzing the polarization of the reflected light
from a direct polarized laser source and from natural
ambient illumination. For active imagers, the target contrast
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enhancement is obtained by illuminating the scene with a
polarized laser source and then by analyzing the
polarization of the reflected light from the targets. Such
active imagers have been efficient at night and in degraded
weather conditions. Furthermore, these active devices have
demonstrated that range gating provided extent immunity to
blooming effects specific to highly sensitive sensors, and
eliminate most of the light backscattered by aerosols.
During the experiments, images were acquired in winter and
summer time, at daytime and nighttime. Targets were static
during the measurement sessions and orthogonally polarized
images at various ranges were captured for each of them.
3.1 The experiments
The foundation of our experiments is based on the
hypothesis that the exploitation of the polarization of
reflected light from targets of interest has the potential to
provide additional information than typical EO sensors, and
thus enhance significantly the resulting target detection
performance. Indeed, knowing that the incident light from
the illuminator will be less depolarized by man made objects
than by natural ones, an image encoded by the degree of
polarization shall allow the distinction between man made
objects and natural background, even in the case of same
reflectivity [2].
The image acquisitions were conducted according to
two experiments: one held at the Canadian Forces Base
Valcartier (Quebec, Canada) and the second held in
Baldersheim (France). The first experiment was held during
winter time: Data were captured according to scenarios that
include vehicles, camouflage textiles (such as nets and
clothing), and compacted and disturbed snow. The second
experiment was conducted during summer time: Data
captured were from measurements on urban environments,
civilian and military vehicles, nets and clothing.
3.2 Stokes parameters
The representation of the radiation backscattered by the
targets – unpolarized, partially polarized, completely
polarized, circularly or elliptically polarized – is achieved
through the use of the Stokes parameters. The quantification
of the polarization can be achieved by the Stoke parameters
(I, Q, U, V) to define the degree of polarization:
I Ax2  Ay2 A2 S 0 (1)
Q Ax2  Ay2 S1 (2)
U 2 Ax Ay cos J S2 (3)
V 2 Ax Ay sin J S3 (4)
where Ax, Ay are the amplitudes of the electromagnetic
waves in mutually perpendicular directions, A2 is the
intensity, Ȗ is the phase angle between Ax and Ay, < >
indicates time averaging, and I2 = Q2 + U2 + V2. I is the
intensity of radiation and is the result of photometric
measurements. Q is the difference between the intensities of
radiation in the mutually perpendicular directions used to
specify Ax and Ay. U indicates the excess of radiation in the
+45o direction over that in the +135o direction relative to the
plane of vision. V is the amount of circular polarized
radiation. During the experiments, polarimetric data were
recorded assuming that the laser light is polarized in order
to rotate a linear polarizer, which enable the measurement of
the first three Stokes components.
3.3 Orthogonal state contrast image
Polarimetric imaging can be used for characterizing material
and observing contrast that are not detectable in
conventional intensity images. Analyzing the backscattered
light in the polarization states parallel and orthogonal to the
incident one may reveal important features that may not be
discernible in intensity images. It has been reported that
such polarimetric images are independent of the spatial non-
uniformity of the illumination, since they are normalized by
the local total intensity [3]. In order to improve the contrast
level of the targets from its background, two images of the
scene are acquired, one for each laser-camera polarization
configuration. With such configuration, each image is
formed from an average of a train of three images acquired
successively to reduce the resulting noise.
The first image s1(i,j) corresponds to reflected light
with the same polarization state as the incident light: this is
obtained by fixing horizontally both the laser polarization
and the camera polarizer. The second image s2(i,j)
corresponds to the reflected light with orthogonal
polarization and is obtained by orienting the polarizer in
front of the camera vertically and leaving the laser
polarization horizontal. For the LWIR imaging device, the
polarization of the laser is horizontally linearly polarized
and therefore, only the grid-wire facing the camera is
rotated. The difference of these two images provides the
orthogonal state contrast image (OSCI) and is the total
intensity backscattered by the scene, calculated as follows:
s1 i, j  s2 i, j
U i, j
s1 i, j  s2 i, j
where (i,j) is the coordinates of a given pixel, such that
s1(i,j)[s2(i,j)] is the intensity at pixel (i,j) in s1(s2). The OSCI
is invariant to illumination nonhomogeneity as it is
normalized by the total intensity s1(i,j) + s2(i,j). The joint
observation of both images allows the estimation of how the
materials in the scene depolarize the incident light. The
degree of polarization can be defined by:
4 det )
P 1 2
tr )
where ĭ is the coherency matrix, and det(ĭ) and tr(ĭ) are
respectively the determinant and the trace of ĭ. For natural
textures, diattenuation and retardance effects are negligible.
Since materials correspond to the most common situation in
natural outdoor scenes and that they can be considered
purely depolarizing and isotropic, the coherency matrix ĭ is
diagonal and thus, the channel s1 and s2 are considered
statistically independent. The OSCI is an estimate of the
image degree of linear polarization (DOLP) if the observed
material is purely depolarizing, which is a natural
assumption for natural materials observed in monostatic
configuration [2]. Under these conditions, speckle noise and
non uniformity effects of the laser are removed in order to
improve the contrast of the target from its background [4].
The DOLP, and thus the OSCI, shall be able to reveal
targets against natural backgrounds that do not appear with
good contrast in intensity images.
4. RESULTS
Active and passive polarimetric images of civilian and
military assets have been produced at wavelengths in the
NIR and LWIR bands with the two imaging sensors
presented in section 2.
4.1 VIZIR
Measurements with the VIZIR imaging system were
conducted in both active and passive modes since the
polarization filter in front of the sensor could be rotated.
Figure 3 shows active polarimetric images of a vehicle
acquired after sunset, in winter conditions. Some contrast
enhancement was observed with the OSCI image (fig.3c).
(a) (b)
(5)
(c)
Figure 3. Active polarimetric images (a) s1, (b) s2, and (c)
OSCI of a vehicle acquired at 50 meters with VIZIR.
Figure 4 illustrates active polarimetric images acquired from
a site containing natural and disturbed snow. Both the tracks
(6) and the edges of disturbed snow are polarized. The laser
light is reflected in particular polarization at 860 nm.
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(a) (b)
(c)
Figure 4. Active polarimetric images (a) s1, (b) s2, and (c)
OSCI of tracks and disturbed snow acquired at 100 meters
with VIZIR.
4.2 LWIR
Figure 5 shows passive polarimetric images of a military
vehicle acquired at nighttime. The snow surrounding the
military vehicles shows a certain degree of polarization. The
edges of the mountain at the top of the images also show a
higher polarization level than the sky.
(a) (b)
(c)
Figure 5. Passive polarimetric images (a) s1, (b) s2, and (c)
OSCI of a vehicle acquired at 50 meters with LWIR system.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Active and passive polarimetric signatures of civilian and
military assets have been produced at wavelengths in the
NIR and LWIR bands with two imaging sensors. The
orthogonal state contrast image has been used as an estimate
of the total intensity backscattered by the scene.
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Using the VIZIR system in active mode, results have
demonstrated that polarization does enhance man made
object contrast for some targets of interest. Measurements
with the LWIR system showed that far-infrared active
polarimetry does improve the target contrast from various
natural backgrounds, although the results were not as
conclusive as in the near-infrared band. For some targets,
only specific parts of the object will effectively show some
contrast enhancement. Also, like in the near-infrared band,
some targets maintain the polarization of the incident laser
beam. In the case of IR targets, they were effective in the
passive mode (being non-emissive) but they exhibit high
reflectivity and consequently are very easy to detect with a
far-infrared polarimetric active imager.
The experiments conducted showed that passive
polarimetric imagery has the capability to discriminate
disturbed snow edges in the LWIR band. However, no real
contrast enhancement was observed with the VIZIR 860 nm
system for that specific scenario. As for the clothing, they
showed a low degree of polarization in passive imagery.
Nonetheless, a contrast enhancement was obtained in some
active polarimetric images, due essentially to the reflectivity
(or low emissivity) of the objects of interest to be detected.
Results have also demonstrated that polarimetric
thermal imaging target discrimination capability is strongly
dependent on the external conditions (i.e. presence of the
sun, the time of day the measurements were carried out, the
general weather conditions, etc.). In addition, active
polarimetric images offer a slight advantage compared to
classical passive images in the LWIR spectral band in
winter conditions.
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[2] S. Breugnot, P. Clémenceau, “Modeling and performances of a
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pp.2681-2688, 2000.
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