NISAR Beta Polarimetric Covariance Radar Data With Terrain Correction

NISAR Beta Geocoded Polarimetric Covariance Product is a Level 2 radar dataset derived from Level 1 Single Look Complex data. It provides terrain-corrected polarimetric covariance matrices projected onto a UTM or polar stereographic grid. The data is produced by the NASA-ISRO collaboration and distributed by the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF).

Use Cases

• Analyzing terrain-normalized backscatter coefficients (gamma-naught) derived from beta-naught for land cover studies.
• Investigating polarimetric scattering behavior using the provided upper triangular terms of the Hermitian covariance matrix.
• Developing geocoding and radiometric terrain correction (RTC) validation methods using the predefined UTM/polar stereographic output grid.
• Examining the relationship between real-valued diagonal covariance terms and radar backscatter for different polarimetric channels.
• Assessing the impact of sensor-facing topography on covariance term magnitude in beta product imagery.

Strengths

• Data incorporates area-based radiometric terrain correction (RTC) to reduce topographic bias on covariance measurements.
• Products provide geocoded polarimetric covariance matrices projected onto a standardized map grid (UTM/polar stereographic).

Limitations

• Products are labeled as Beta, meaning they are not intended for use in scientific research and are for familiarization only.
• The off-diagonal terms of the polarimetric covariance matrix may be absent depending on the GCOV processing mode.
• Specific sample size, geographic coverage, and temporal range for the collection are not provided.

Provenance

Source

NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, distributed via the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF).

Collection Method

Derived from Level 1 Range Doppler Single Look Complex (RSLC) data via cross-correlation and area-based adaptive multilooking.

Time Range

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Freshness

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Geography

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