Calibration of SAR data has been worked on for many years. Particularly challengin is the calibration of polarimetric SAR's because of the interaction of the different polariazation channels and the need for targets that have special polarimetric responses to allow the algorithms to work. Almost all SAR data comes calibrated now, but an understanding of what is involved in this process is essential for anyone using calibrated data so that they can be informed users and bring at least a little skepticism also, in case the calibration is not as good as one would want.

Some of our publications in this area:

• Sarabandi, K., F.T. Ulaby, and M.A. Tassoudji, "Calibration of polarimetric radar systems with good polarization isolation", IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing, vol. 28, no. 1, 70-75, Jan. 1990. [Abstract] [umCalIso.ps]
  
  
• Sarabandi, K., and F.T. Ulaby, `` A convenient technique for polarimetric calibration of radar systems'', IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing, vol. 28, no. 6, 1022-1033, Nov. 1990. [Abstract] [umCalConvenient.ps]
  
  
• Sarabandi, K., Y. Oh, and F.T. Ulaby, `` Application and performance characterization of polarimetric active radar calibrator'', IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 40, no. 10, 1147-1154, Oct. 1992. [Abstract] [umCalPARC.ps]
  
  
• Sarabandi, K., L.E. Pierce, and F.T. Ulaby, ``Calibration of a polarimetric imaging SAR'', IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing., vol. 30, no. 3, 540-549, May 1992. [Abstract] [umCalSAR.ps.gz (295KB)] [umCalSAR.ps.zip (295KB)]
  
  
• Sarabandi, K., Y. Oh, and F.T. Ulaby, ``Measurement and calibration of differential Mueller matrix of distributed targets,'' IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 40, no. 12, 1524-1532, Dec. 1992. [Abstract] [umCalMueller.ps]
  
  
• Sarabandi, K., ``Calibration of a polarimetric synthetic aperture radar using a known distributed target'' IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing, vol. 32, no. 3, 575-582, May 1994. [Abstract] [umCalDistrib.ps]
  
  
• Sarabandi, K., L.E. Pierce, Y. Oh, M.C. Dobson, A. Freeman, and P. Dubois, ``Cross calibration experiment using JPL AIRSAR and truck-mounted polarimetric scatterometers,'' IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing, vol. 32, no. 5, 975-985, Sept. 1994. [Abstract] [umCrossCal.ps]
  
  
• Sarabandi, K., and T.C. Chiu,`` An optimum corner reflector for calibration of imaging radars,'' IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., accepted for publication (Feb. 1995). [Abstract] [umCornerRefl.ps]
  
  
• Sarabandi, K., L. Pierce, M.C. Dobson, F.T. Ulaby, J. Stiles, T.C. Chiu, R. De Roo, R. Hartikka, A. Zambetti, and A. Freeman, ``Polarimetric calibration of SIR-C using point and distributed targets,'' IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 858-866, July 1995. [Abstract] [umCalSIRC1.ps]
  
  
• Freeman, A., M. Alves, B. Chapman, J. Cruz,, Y. Kim, S. Shaffer, J. Sun, E. Turner, and K. Sarabandi, ``SIR-C Calibration Results,'' IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing., vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 848-857, July 1995. [Abstract] [umCalSIRC2.ps]