On the Method of Circular Polarimetric SAR Calibration Using Distributed Targets

The channel imbalance and crosstalks are the two major factors for the polarimetric calibration of the circular quad-polarimetric (CQP) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. In existing methods using distributed targets, the latter is usually ignored, which may lead to unbearable errors in target classification, surface parameter inversion, and so on. To address this issue, this article proposes a modified iterative calibration method using distributed targets that satisfy quasi-azimuth symmetry to calibrate both the channel imbalance and crosstalks of the CQP SAR systems. First, a stable distributed target selection strategy is proposed based on the correlation coefficient of LL polarization and RR polarization, the cross- and co-polarization backscatter ratio, and the equivalent number of looks (ENL). These parameters are insensitive to polarization distortion, and their typical ranges are determined via numerical simulations. Their combination helps select the targets that satisfy the quasi-azimuth symmetry, which is critical for calibrating the crosstalks. Then, the calibration can be conducted using the selected target. Finally, the phase ambiguity of the receive channel imbalance ratio, commonly found in distributed-target-based algorithms, is eliminated using a dipole target. Through the calibration of Gaofen-3 data and the statistical analysis of residual distortion, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified.