The European Space Agency organised the 6^th International Workshop on Science and Applications of SAR Polarimetry and Polarimetric Interferometry,: POLinSAR 2013, which was hosted in Frascati, Italy from 28 January to 1 February 2013.

The workshop was open to:

• ESA Principal Investigators, scientists and students working in the field of SAR Polarimetry and Polarimetric Interferometry
• ESA/CSA SOAR EU PIs
• Users of data from future SAR missions including Copernicus Sentinel-1, RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM), and ALOS 2
• Representatives from national, European and international space and value adding industry

The main objectives of the PolInSAR 2013 workshop were to:

• Provide a forum for scientific exchange
• Present exploitation results from fully polarimetric airborne and spaceborne systems
• Present latest studies in the field and ESA POLSARAP results
• Report on progress/status of PolInSAR 2011 recommendations
• Demonstrate benefits of fully polarimetric systems (vs. dual or single polarisation)
• Present future missions in preparation
• Present final PI results from ESA/CSA SOAR EU initiative

The workshop focused on theory and methods in the fields of SAR Polarimetry and Polarimetric Interferometry around the following themes:

1. Theoretical Modelling
2. SAR Polarimetric Interferometry (Pol-InSAR)
3. Polarimetry and Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI)
4. Polarimetry and Tomography
5. Applications of SAR Polarimetry:
   • Land: Forest, Agriculture, Environment and Wetlands
   • Ocean: Pollution Monitoring, Ship detection, Ocean Parameters Retrieval, Sea Features
   • Cryosphere: Snow, Land Ice and Sea Ice Monitoring
   • Hazards: Fire Monitoring, Volcanoes, Flooding, Earthquake
   • Other applications
6. Past, current and future SAR Missions (e.g. RCM, Sentinel-1, ALOS-2, NovaSAR-S, SAOCOM7)
7. Airborne and Spaceborne campaigns

Download the session summaries and recommendations following the workshop.