Detecting speedboats in SAR imagery using polarisation synthesis

Abstract

To investigate the potential for small boat detection in SAR imagery, an airborne campaign was performed using the French Aerospace Laboratory’s (ONERA) fully polarimetric airborne SAR system, SETHI. Four cooperative targets were present in the radar scene which was imaged at different aspect angles and at both L and X-band. This paper presents a new technique for improving the target to clutter ratio through the process of polarisation synthesis. An improvement of almost 5 dB is found when compared to the horizontal transmit and receive (HH) polarisation.