On the Performance of Polarimetric Subtraction Technique for the Detection of Bunkers in the Presence of Surface Clutter

An in-depth analysis of the performance of an imaging-domain, polarimetric subtraction-based clutter-suppression technique is carried out as pertinent to the detection of bunkers located under a slightly rough ground surface. The technique exploits the distinctive scattering behaviors of the ground surface and the target of interest for discrimination in cases in which the target may not even be discernible in the conventional synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. It is seen that the approach is effective at all practical elevation incidence angles, including in the regions close to normal incidence and beyond the Brewster angle. Consequently, provided that a training clutter scene is available for the derivation of the appropriate cancellation coefficient, the target-to-clutter ratio can be significantly improved.