Polarimetric 3D-ISAR

In a maritime radar, inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) is used to image and classify non-cooperative targets. Three dimensional (3D)-ISAR has been developed to improve the target representation and provide more accurate estimates of a target's geometric features. This can improve the ability of automatic ship classification techniques that utilise those features. Polarimetry provides additional scattering information, which has been exploited in the remote sensing community to enhance the quality of SAR/ISAR imagery. In prior work, 3DISAR has been limited to a single polarisation. We now propose a polarimetric technique that enhances the 3D-ISAR image quality by taking advantage of the different scattering properties. The result is improved accuracy of the geometric feature estimates.