Land Cover Segmentation of ALOS Polarimetric SAR Data

Image segmentation is a basic step of any segment-based classification method. Various segmentation approaches of polarimetric SAR data, such as region growing and splitmerge to name a few, have been proposed recently. This paper describes the development of a new segmentation approach that improves the polarimetric SAR data analysis by including information from the backscattering behavior of objects in the Freeman-Durden analysis images. This method is based on the main scattering mechanism that appears in each image pixel and the second most important scattering mechanism that might have been contributed significantly in the scattering process. Further segmentation is performed based on the calculated histograms of sub-regions. The state-of-art ALOS polarimetric SAR data are used in this study. The study area is located in the south of the United Kingdom and includes the city of Minehead.