About PolSARpro

Data Import

• Import supported data formats and raw binary data;
• Quicklook image generation;
• Sub area or full resolution extraction.

Data Conversion

• Fully Polarimetric Data Format Conversion:
  • from Sinclair Matrix (S3, S4) to Coherency Matrix (T3, T4) or Covariance Matrix (C3, C4);
  • from Coherency Matrix (T3 or T4) to Covariance Matrix (C3 or C4);
  • from Covariance Matrix (C3 or C4) to Coherency Matrix (T3 or T4);
• Convert Fully Polarimetric Data to Partial Polarimetric Data.

Basis Change

• From (H-V) polarisation basis to:
  • pre-defined linear basis (± 45°);
  • pre-defined circular basis (L/R);
  • elliptical basis (phi, tau)

Speckle Filters

• Box Car Filter, Gaussian Filter, Refined Lee Filter or Idan Filter.
• Box-Car + Edge detectors
• C. Lopez and Lee-Sigma speckle filters
  Speckle filters can be applied to SLC (S2) data, MLC (T3, T4, C3, or C4) data or Partial Polarimetric data.

Data Processing

• Sinclair (S2), Coherency (T3 or T4) or Covariance (C3 or C4) parameters processing;
• Polarimetric Whitening Filter (PWF), Optimal Polarimetric Contrast Enhancement (OPCE), Radar Cross Section (RCS) maximisation;
• Polarisation Synthesis, Polarimetric Signature Analysis;
• Polarimetric Decompositions (Huynen, Barnes, Holm, Cloude, Krogager, Freeman, Cameron);
• H / A / alpha decomposition:
  • Decomposition parameters;
  • Eigenvector set parameters;
  • Eigenvalue set parameters;
• Supervised Wishart classification;
• Unsupervised (H / alpha), (A / alpha), (H / A) classifications;
• Unsupervised Wishart H / A / alpha classification;
• Basic scattering mechanism identification;
• Sub Aperture Analysis (decomposition, applications);
• Surface Inversion (Oh model, Dubois model);
• Polarimetric Statistics:
  • Data analysis (mean, std, 3rd, 4th moments);
  • Data distribution, histograms.
• Compact Polarimetry:
  Conpact Polarimetry mode can be performed from the (2x2) complex Sinclair monostatic [S2], the (3x3) complex Coherency [T3] or Covariance matrix [C3] polarimetric data sets;
• Edge detectors: Canny, Black, Marr and Rothwell edge detector procedures;
• Data Clustering;
• Polarimetric Entropy according Shannon theory - courtesy of Jerome Morio and Philippe Refregier from University of Aix – Marseille III (Institut Fresnel - Marseille);
• Coefficient of Variation;
• Lueneburg Anisotropy coefficient;
• Generalized Freeman – Yamaguchi 3-components decomposition;
• Yamaguchi 4-components decomposition (published in 2007);
• Freeman 2-components decomposition (published in 2006);
• Unsupervised segmentation based on the generalized Freeman – Yamaguchi 3-components decomposition;
• 24bits RGB BMP representation of the dual-polarimetric data based on the Stokes parameters;
• 24bits HSV BMP representation of the dual-polarimetric data based on the Stokes parameters.
• New Polarimetric Parameters:
  • Conformity Coefficient (M.L. Truong Loi)
  • Differential Reflectivity (ZDR)
  • Polarimetric Reflectivity Ratio
  • Scattering Predominance (J. Praks & E. Colin)
  • Degree of Purity (J. Praks & E. Colin)
  • Scattering Diversity (J. Praks & E. Colin)
  • Depolarisation Index (J. Praks & E. Colin)
  • Entropy approximation (J. Praks & E. Colin)
  • Alpha approximation (J. Praks & E. Colin)
  • Scattering Mechanism Entropy (A. Freeman)
  • Kozlov Anisotropy coefficient
• Faraday Rotation Estimation
• M. Neumann 2-components decomposition
• R. Touzi - TSVM decomposition
• J.J. VanZyl 3-model based components decomposition (published in 2008)
• Unsupervised fuzzy neural segmentation ( S.E. Park )
• Algorithms for topography extraction from PolSAR data.
• Surface parameter data inversion: Oh 2004 Model.

Calibration

• Calibrator assessment;
• Calibration procedures (Quegan, Papathanassiou, Ainsworth).

Pol-InSAR Data Processing

• Sinclair (S2) Master / Slave elements processing;
• Pol-InSAR speckle filter;
• Complex Coherences:
  • Estimation;
  • Representation (magnitude, interferogram);
• Height Estimation-Inversion Procedures:
  • Phase Centre Height;
  • DEM Differencing Algorithm;
  • Coherence Amplitude Inversion;
  • Ground Phase Estimation;
  • Phase and Coherence Estimation - RVOG Algorithm;
• Unsupervised Pol-InSAR segmentation;
• Polarization Coherence Tomography (PCT): very innovative Radar imaging technique, proposed by Prof. S.R. Cloude, which employs variation of the interferometric coherence with polarization to reconstruct a vertical profile function in penetrable volume scattering.
• Pol-InSAR Coherence Optimisation Methods: New approaches, proposed by M. Lavalle are implemnted: Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), Phase Diversity (Tabb), Numerical Radius (E. Colin), Min/Max of Phase / Magnitude over Coherence Boundary and Max Phase / Max Difference over Coherence Boundary.
• Baseline Calculator Tool available only for ALOS Products delivered by JAXA (M. Lavalle):
  • Estimation of the horizontal, vertical, parallel and perpendicular baselines from the state vectors
  • Coarse Co-Registration of the [S2] SLC PolSAR images
  • Generation and estimation of the Flat Earth map
  • Generation and estimation of the Vertical Wavenumber (kz)

• PolSARproSim: a fully polarimetric-interferometric coherent SAR scattering and imaging simulator on forest developed by M. Williams

  From the PolSARproSim simulator providing simulated Pol-InSAR test data on forests, two new simulators on real environments are proposed:

  • PolSARproSIMgr : for Pol-InSAR ground surface simulation
  • PolSARproSIMgv : for Pol-InSAR ground + small vegetation simulation

Tools

• Batch Processing: from Data Conversion (S3 to T3) to Wishart H / A / alpha classification;
• Raw Binary Data file: rotate ± 90°, 180°, flip ud/lr, transpose, sub data extraction, IEEE format convert;
• Complex raw binary data FFT;
• Export to ENVI, RAT;
• BMP Processing:
  • Create BMP files from binary data (modulus, phase, real part, imaginary part) with different colourmaps (grey, jet, hsv);
  • Create colour-coded RGB or HSI files (3 input channels), Pauli/Sinclair combinations;
• Integral image viewer with zoom, colour dropper, colour palette editor, rotate ± 90°, 180°, flip ud/lr, transpose functions and export to GIF, JPEG, PS and TIFF;
• My function (integration of user-defined tools).
• Rewrite ENVI Headers for PolSARpro Classification bin files incorporing the color tables used to generate the BMP files. ( Courtesy of Dr. Joseph Buckley from Royal Military College of Canada – Kingston – Canada )

Interface with External Software

The PolSARpro v4.0 software can offer the possibility to interface with the following external softwares:

• G.I.M.P (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) : This open source software, under GNU License, can handle and display several BMP images at the same time, thus allowing a better comparison between them.
• Google Earth : Different functionalities are also provide that offer to the user the possibility to visualize on Google Earth the SAR Image Track (Read / Create / Open a GEARTH_POLY file), or overlay and display on Google Earth the PolSARpro output BMP images (Create / Open a KML file).
• S.R.T.M (Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission) : This functionality offers to the user to download from two given ftp sites, the SRTM GeoTIFF file and display and overlay on Google Earth the extracted DEM image corresponding to the SAR image under process.
• NEST (Next ESA Software Tool): A link has been implemented in the PolSARpro v4.0 Software to launch directly the ESA-NEST Software, thus proposing to the user all the functionalities offered by the NEST Software.

Additional Modules Development

An automatic procedure, called configuration, checks during the installation what is the PDF Reader software installed in the machine of the user, and creates the associated link. This automatic procedure also checks and creates a link between PolSARpro v4.0 Software and Google Earth and GIMP functionalities if installed on the machine of the user.