A study of material identification using SAR

We investigate the feasibility of using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to identify materials at each pixel in a SAR image. A fundamental concept underlying our approach is to extract the dispersion of the reflectivity at each pixel by dividing the data into several frequency sub-bands. We first compute synthetic radar data using parameters that are characteristic of a typical wide-band SAR system operating in a spotlight mode and illuminating several scattering regions that differ in their frequency response. Secondly, we process the data by subdividing the full data set into frequency sub-bands thereby extracting the dispersion at each pixel. Third and finally, we perform the material identification using a rudimentary classification analysis. The approach described herein offers a new method for planning experimental data collections for the purpose of material identification through SAR image formation.