Polarization analysis of the impact of temporal decorrelation in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) tomography

After almost two decades of long investigations into 3D imaging of natural environments, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) tomography (TomoSAR) is now at an operational level. Yet, a major problem that limits the potential of TomoSAR is related to the temporal decorrelation of natural scatterers during multitemporal multibaseline data acquisition. In this paper, a comparative investigation into the effect of temporal decorrelation between employed polarizations is presented. A particular focus is put on practical and statistical analysis of the dispersion of polarimetric vertical reflectivity in the presence of temporal decorrelation. The analysis is based on the synthesis of all feasible polarimetric responses of a given scatterer from its measurements of a linear orthonormal basis. Such an analysis offers a comprehension of the expected level of temporal decorrelation in TomoSAR focusing with respect to employed polarization. The analysis was performed by simulating temporal decorrelation with different terms, depending on the vertical structure and polarization, which are important aspects in a forest scenario. Moreover, the experiment was extended to a P-band dataset relative to the forest site of Remningstorp, Sweden, which was acquired through the German Aerospace Center’s experimental SAR (E-SAR) airborne system in the framework of the European Space Agency (ESA) campaign BioSAR.