Polarisation parameters from wide-band high resolution radar imagery

It is demonstrate that polarimetric high-resolution experiments are able to produce images of distinct scattering centers whose properties can be examined by means of the theory of optimal polarizations. The results are in excellent quantitative agreement with simulations based on the geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD). Polarimetric high-resolution experiments thus enable the investigation of isolated canonical scattering mechanisms which are suitably handled with mathematic expressions delivered by the GTD and UTD (uniform theory of diffraction). Even if two scattering centers cannot be resolved the frequency behavior of the measured parameters gives enough information about the scattering geometry investigated. In this case the polarimetric parameters gamma (characteristic angle) and nu (target skip angle) are related if considered as functions of frequency.<>