Polarimetric Passive Millimeter-Wave Imaging of Surface Vessels.

Passive millimeter-wave (PMMW) imaging is one of the important approaches for target detection with the background of the sea surface. The fluctuating sea waves and the reflections of surface vessels produce increased difficulties for observers and processing algorithms to detect objects. In this paper, we explore the polarimetric properties of a typical surface vessel by PMMW imaging simulation. Stokes and polarization parameters have been calculated based on four linear polarization images. The simulated images have been discussed qualitatively and quantitatively by using the contrast ratio (CR) between the vessel and the sea surface. The analysis results indicate that polarimetric imaging can improve the detection performance for surface vessels.