A STATISTICAL DESCRIPTION OF POLARIMETRIC AND INTERFEROMETRIC SYNTHETIC-APERTURE RADAR DATA

This paper provides a nearly complete analysis of the key distribution s encountered in single- and multi-look polarimetric synthetic apertur e radar data under the bivariate Gaussian and K-distribution models. I t contains new analytic results on the moments of the amplitude and ph ase difference in single look data and on the moments of the amplitude in multi-look data. As yet no analytic results for the moments of mul ti-look phase difference have been found, except in limiting cases. Th e maximum likelihood estimators of the covariance matrix elements of t wo jointly Gaussian channels are derived, together with their asymptot ic variances. The problems in extending this analysis to the bivariate K distribution are also discussed.