Research on the Design of Optimal Polarization Modes for Generalized Compact Polarimetry SAR Target Classification

Abstract

This article proposes a generalized compact polarimetry (GCP) mode along with two optimal polarization mode selection parameters to address the challenges of polarization mode selection in classification tasks across diverse scenarios. Theoretically, we conduct an in-depth analysis of the differences between circular and linear transmit polarizations, demonstrating their fundamental equivalence in terms of information content. For the first time, we propose that different classification tasks require different optimal polarization modes, and the optimal transmit polarization mode may lie in the elliptic polarization domain of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems rather than traditional circular compact polarimetric (CP) or linear dual-polarization (DP) modes. The proposed approach is validated using full-polarimetric SAR data from San Francisco and Hainan, showing that the optimal elliptical polarization mode achieves classification accuracies that are 2% to 42% higher than those of traditional CP or DP modes for certain categories, and performs comparably to full polarization. This improvement in accuracy stems from the interaction between the transmit polarization and the target scene, rather than advancements in classification algorithms. Using the two proposed parameters, the overall and category-specific classification performance of GCP modes can be effectively evaluated, enabling the identification of the optimal polarization mode for a given task. These findings provide significant insight into the design of future polarimetric SAR systems and offer new perspectives and directions for mission planning and mode selection for on-orbit satellites.