An Icon-Based Synoptic Visualization of Fully Polarimetric Radar Data

Abstract: The visualization of fully polarimetric radar data is hindered by traditional remote sensing methodologies for displaying data due to the large number of parameters per pixel in such data, and the non-scalar nature of variables such as phase difference. In this paper, a new method is described that uses icons instead of image pixels to represent the image data so that polarimetric properties and geographic context can be visualized together. The icons are parameterized using the alpha-entropy decomposition of polarimetric data. The resulting image allows the following five variables to be displayed simultaneously: unpolarized power, alpha angle, polarimetric entropy, anisotropy and orientation angle. Examples are given for both airborne and laboratory-based imaging.