Innovative Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Land Cover Classification: Integrating Power, Polarimetric, and Interferometric Information for Higher Accuracy

The Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolInSAR) system is a combination of polarimetric SAR and interferometric SAR, which can simultaneously obtain the power information, polarimetric information, and interferometric information of land cover. Traditional land cover classificat...

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Main Authors: Yifan Xu, Aifang Liu, Youquan Lin, Moqian Wang, Long Huang, Zuzhen Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-03-01
Series:Sensors
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/7/1996
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author Yifan Xu
Aifang Liu
Youquan Lin
Moqian Wang
Long Huang
Zuzhen Huang
author_facet Yifan Xu
Aifang Liu
Youquan Lin
Moqian Wang
Long Huang
Zuzhen Huang
author_sort Yifan Xu
collection DOAJ
description The Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolInSAR) system is a combination of polarimetric SAR and interferometric SAR, which can simultaneously obtain the power information, polarimetric information, and interferometric information of land cover. Traditional land cover classification methods fail to fully utilize these information types, resulting in limited classification types and low accuracy. This paper proposes a PolInSAR land cover classification method that fuses power information, polarimetric information, and interferometric information, aiming to enrich the classification types and improve the classification accuracy. Firstly, the land cover is divided into strong scattering areas and weak scattering areas by using the power information to avoid the influence of weak scattering areas on the classification results. Then, the weak scattering areas are distinguished into shadows and water bodies by combining the interferometric information and image corners. For the strong scattering areas, the polarimetric information is utilized to distinguish vegetation, buildings, and bare soil. For the vegetation area, the concept of vegetation ground elevation is put forward. By combining with the anisotropy parameter, the vegetation is further subdivided into tall coniferous vegetation, short coniferous vegetation, tall broad-leaved vegetation, and short broad-leaved vegetation. The effectiveness of the method has been verified by the PolInSAR data obtained from the N-SAR system developed by Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology. The overall classification accuracy reaches 90.2%, and the Kappa coefficient is 0.876.
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issn 1424-8220
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series Sensors
spelling doaj-art-4d6217decd644eef916d6cbd8811243f2025-08-20T02:09:22ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202025-03-01257199610.3390/s25071996Innovative Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Land Cover Classification: Integrating Power, Polarimetric, and Interferometric Information for Higher AccuracyYifan Xu0Aifang Liu1Youquan Lin2Moqian Wang3Long Huang4Zuzhen Huang5Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology, Nanjing 210039, ChinaNanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology, Nanjing 210039, ChinaNanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology, Nanjing 210039, ChinaNanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology, Nanjing 210039, ChinaNanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology, Nanjing 210039, ChinaNanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology, Nanjing 210039, ChinaThe Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolInSAR) system is a combination of polarimetric SAR and interferometric SAR, which can simultaneously obtain the power information, polarimetric information, and interferometric information of land cover. Traditional land cover classification methods fail to fully utilize these information types, resulting in limited classification types and low accuracy. This paper proposes a PolInSAR land cover classification method that fuses power information, polarimetric information, and interferometric information, aiming to enrich the classification types and improve the classification accuracy. Firstly, the land cover is divided into strong scattering areas and weak scattering areas by using the power information to avoid the influence of weak scattering areas on the classification results. Then, the weak scattering areas are distinguished into shadows and water bodies by combining the interferometric information and image corners. For the strong scattering areas, the polarimetric information is utilized to distinguish vegetation, buildings, and bare soil. For the vegetation area, the concept of vegetation ground elevation is put forward. By combining with the anisotropy parameter, the vegetation is further subdivided into tall coniferous vegetation, short coniferous vegetation, tall broad-leaved vegetation, and short broad-leaved vegetation. The effectiveness of the method has been verified by the PolInSAR data obtained from the N-SAR system developed by Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology. The overall classification accuracy reaches 90.2%, and the Kappa coefficient is 0.876.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/7/1996PolInSARland cover classificationinformation fusionvegetation classification
spellingShingle Yifan Xu
Aifang Liu
Youquan Lin
Moqian Wang
Long Huang
Zuzhen Huang
Innovative Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Land Cover Classification: Integrating Power, Polarimetric, and Interferometric Information for Higher Accuracy
Sensors
PolInSAR
land cover classification
information fusion
vegetation classification
title Innovative Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Land Cover Classification: Integrating Power, Polarimetric, and Interferometric Information for Higher Accuracy
title_full Innovative Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Land Cover Classification: Integrating Power, Polarimetric, and Interferometric Information for Higher Accuracy
title_fullStr Innovative Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Land Cover Classification: Integrating Power, Polarimetric, and Interferometric Information for Higher Accuracy
title_full_unstemmed Innovative Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Land Cover Classification: Integrating Power, Polarimetric, and Interferometric Information for Higher Accuracy
title_short Innovative Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Land Cover Classification: Integrating Power, Polarimetric, and Interferometric Information for Higher Accuracy
title_sort innovative polarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar land cover classification integrating power polarimetric and interferometric information for higher accuracy
topic PolInSAR
land cover classification
information fusion
vegetation classification
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/7/1996
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