Radar polarimetry for geoscience applications

The present volume on radar polarimetry for geoscience applications discusses wave properties and polarization, scattering matrix representation for simple targets, scattering models for point and distributed targets, polarimetric scatterometer systems and measurements, polarimetric radar system design, and polarimetric SAR applications. Attention is given to plane waves in a lossless homogeneous medium-wave polarization, polarization synthesis and response, and coordinate system transformations. Topics addressed include high- and low-frequency scattering, rough-surface scattering models, radiative transfer theory and deficiencies thereof, solutions for the radiative transfer equation, and a radiative transfer model for a forest canopy. Also discussed are network analyzer-based polarimetric scatterometers, calibration of polarimetric scatterometers, synthesized polarization response of distributed targets, and measurement of the propagation parameters of a forest canopy.