Characterization of Marine Aquaculture Structures Using TanDEM-X Dual-Pol SAR Data

Abstract:
The detection and characterization of coastal aquaculture structures is gaining attention due to its increasing global demand. To date, the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data for this application has been, so far, limited to the exploitation of only the SAR backscatter intensity, mostly exploiting dual-pol VV-HV or HH-VH of the Sentinel-1 Cband sensor. This study provides a first analysis on the characterization of aquaculture structures by exploiting dual-pol HH-VV TanDEM-X data. Such analysis is performed over a mussel production area located in the Ría de Arousa estuary of the Galician sea in Spain. A statistical analysis over the HH SAR backscatter was performed to detect 472 raft structures, and an initial polarimetric analysis demonstrated the possibility to identify those structures and characterize their polarimetric signature, different from that of the surrounding water.