A three-component decomposition algorithm for polarimetric SAR with the helix angle compensation

A three-component decomposition algorithm is proposed for polarimetric SAR data. After extracting the volume scattering component, both the orientation angle compensation and a unitary transformation are applied to the remaining matrix to derive the second and third components which are exactly consistent with either the surface scattering model or the double-bounce scattering model, respectively. We suggest calling the unitary transformation as the helix angle compensation and show that the remaining matrix is decomposed into two coherency matrices with an orientation angle difference of 45° and opposite helix angles. Experiments with real polarimetric SAR date are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed decomposition algorithm and illustrate its several properties.