Accuracy assessment in photo interpretation of remote sensing ERS-2/SAR images

Three major technological advances have occurred in recent years in the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for the study of geophysical processes. The first is the launch and excellent performance of ERS satellites, which permits the study of global-scale dynamic processes. The second is the development of airborne polarimeter SARs, which provides a far more complete picture of the scattering properties of the Earth's surface than the "simple" systems flown in space. The third is the inception of interferometric SAR, which allows high resolution topographic data to be generated from spaceborne and airborne SAR systems, and can detect centimetric changes in the Earth's surface. Going hand in hand with these advances, there have been major achievements in backscatter modeling, developing viable statistical models of the data and in image understanding techniques. In this work we study the applications of the above concepts in characterizing "crushed" soils in terms of accuracy assessment in images of part of Puglia Region in Italy.