1. USE OF RADIOMETRIC TERRAIN CORRECTION TO IMPROVE POLSAR LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION Don Atwood1 and David Small2 University of Alaska Fairbanks University of Zurich, Switzerland

3. Focus on species differentiation in boreal environment

4. Introduce reference data for land cover classification

5. Introduce method of Radiometric Terrain Correction (RTC)

6. Terrain-flattened Gamma Naught Backscatter

7. Perform RTC on polarimetric parameters to address topography

8. Demonstrate synergy of PolSARpro and MapReady Tools

9. Compare results for RTC-corrected and non-corrected classification

11. wetlands

12. herbaceous tundra

13. black spruce forests (north facing)

14. birch forests (south facing)

17. 21.5 degree look angle

19. Leaf-on

20. Coverage includes Fairbanks and regional roadsPauli Image

21. Problem of Topography Span (Trace of T3 Matrix) Wishart Segmentation

23. for TopographyNear Far

24. Backscatter Reference Areas For an Ellipsoidal Earth Relationships between cross sections for ellipsoidal surfaces

27. Terrain-flattening Solution: Use simulated image to Normalize β0 X Ref.: Small, D., Flattening Gamma: Radiometric Terrain Correction for SAR Imagery, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 13p (in press).

28. Terrain Correction in Coastal BC Vancouver GTC (Sept 2008) Integrated contributing area ENVISAT ASAR WSM data courtesy ESA(based on SRTM3)

29. Terrain Correction in Coastal BC GTC (Sept 2008) Integrated contributing area ENVISAT ASAR WSM data courtesy ESA(based on SRTM3)

30. Coastal BC: GTC ASAR WSM GTC

31. Coastal BC: RTC ASAR WSM RTC

32. Coastal BC: NORLIM ASAR WSM NORLIM

33. Coherency Matrix Scattering Matrix : “Double Bounce” : “Single Bounce” : “Volume Scattering”

35. Radiometric Terrain Correctionof Coherency Matrix Span: No Normalization Span: Terrain-model Normalization

36. Radiometric Terrain Correctionof Coherency Matrix Pauli: No Normalization Pauli: Terrain-model Normalization

37. Integration of PolSARpro and MapReady Ingest PALSAR data Terrain-correct Perform WishartExport to GIS Generate T3 with MapReadydecomposition Cluster-busting Radiometric correction using area Lee Sigma Speckle Filter POA compensation

38. Radiometric Terrain Correctionof Coherency Matrix Wishart - No Normalization Wishart - Radiometric Correction

39. Radiometric Terrain Correctionof Coherency Matrix USGS Reference Wishart– Radiometric Correction

40. Classification Results No Normalization USGS Reference RTC

41. Classification Results Urban areas missed / Identified as Open Water

42. Classification Results Inability to distinguish Mixed Forests and Shrub / Scrub

43. Accuracy Assessment No Normalization

44. Accuracy Assessment With RTC

47. Data fusion provides greatest hope for accurate classification results

48. Radiometric variability caused by topography dominates PolSAR classification

49. Area-based RTC offers effective way to “flatten” SAR radiometry

50. RTC of Coherency Matrix shown to improve classification accuracy:

51. Impact most pronounced for Deciduous Forests

52. Although not complete, RTC approach is simple and effective

53. Different scattering mechanisms (SB, DB, Volume) have different sensitivities to topography. RTC does not address this