Statistics of the Stokes parameters and of the complex coherence parameters in one-look and multilook speckle fields

Barakat [1987] derived the Stokes parameter statistics, applicable to one-look synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, of a partially polarized wave backscattered from a Gaussian area. In this paper, the statistics of the Stokes parameters and of the phase difference are derived as a function of the mean effective phase difference and the degree of coherence for one-look and multilook SAR data. The statistics of the degree of coherence are also derived for multilook SAR data. It is shown that the estimator currently used for calculation of the degree of coherence is biased under low coherence conditions.