Quest-2003 Polarimetric Signature Trial: Experiment Design, SAR Calibration, Data Acquisition and Initial Results

摘要

The Quest-2003 Polarimetric Signature Trial was successfully conducted off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, using the Environment Canada CV-580 C-band SAR in conjunction with the CFAV Quest trial Q-277. This report addresses the polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) experiments that were conducted on 6 and 7 October, 2003. A radar calibration site was established at CFB Shearwater. It was composed of four comer reflectors (CRs), four active radar calibrators (ARCs) and two Global Positioning System (GPS) base stations. CFB Shearwater offers relatively flat, uniform terrain with low radar reflectivity so that a high target-to-clutter ratio (TCR) was achieved. During the PolSAR experiments, 11 CFAV Quest images were successfully collected with various incidence angles, aspect angles, and environmental conditions. Initial results indicate that the ship image is clearly distinguished from the ocean clutter in the PolSAR images. But, several image problems have been noted including image defocus, azimuth ambiguities, and target saturation. Overall, the ship images appear to be smeared in the azimuth direction, an issue that will be the focus of subsequent analysis.