Signatures and signal processing for narrow- and broadband polarimetric radars

Abstract

Polarimetric radars make use of the polarizations of the incident and backscattered waves to achieve the polarimetric target information. This information is described by the scattering matrix (SM) S(f_k) of a target, where f_k is the carrier frequency of a narrowband pulse radar. Depending on the number N of frequencies used, we distinguish between narrow- and broadband polarimetric radars. The purpose of this paper is to compare measured narrow- and broadband SM data and to show a new polarimetric broadband signal description. Furthermore, a comparison of narrow- and broadband signal processing techniques is presented using the polarimetric CFAR detector and a classification concept. The presented broadband measurements show that the polarimetric information changes significantly in the frequency range. This leads to improvements in the broadband polarimetric signal processing compared to the narrowband case.