Measurement and Characterization of Entropy and Degree of Polarization of Weather Radar Targets

To date, few polarimetric weather radars have exhibited the capability to measure full scattering matrices. In contrast, in the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) community, considerable experience has been gained in dealing with complete scattering matrices and their statistical behavior. This paper aims to place weather radar parameters in a wider context in order to exploit more general concepts like target decomposition theorems and polarization basis transformations. Entropy, which is a fully polarimetric variable derived from the Cloude-Pottier decomposition, and the degree of polarization, which is derived from Wolf's coherence matrix, are the subject of this paper. The theoretical analysis carried out in the first part is checked against fully polarimetric data from POLDIRAD, which is the German Aerospace Center research weather radar. The entropy and the degree of polarization are compared with the copolar correlation coefficient in order to understand whether they can add value to radar meteorological investigations. Because the degree of polarization is available to conventional dual-polarization coherent systems, it is important to assess its potential for operational use. © 2008 IEEE.