Millimeter-Wave Polarimetric Radar Sensor for Detection of Power Lines in Strong Clutter Background

To my wife and children for their support and sacrifice ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I give my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my academic advisor Dr. Kamal Sarabandi for his guidance, patience, and encouragement during my Ph.D. journey. I was very fortunate to have him as my advisor. Dr. Sarabandi's broad academic background and positive attitude towards his field of study and his students was always an inspiration to me. I always was able to revive my energy due to his encouragement whenever I got frustrated. I also would like to thank all my committee members for their time and consideration. I owe many thanks to Dr. Adib Nashashibi, who introduced me to millimeter-wave polarimetric radar, and to Dr. Leland Pierce, who always had answers to my questions related to computers and radar image processing. I also want to thank Mark D. Casciato for his kind help and proofreading, including this dissertation. My time in the Rad Lab was enjoyable and memorable due to the Rad Lab staff and my Rad Lab friends. I would also like to express my appreciation to my Korean buddies for their help and friendship including Dr. and Yongshik Lee. I apologize to those people whose names I've missed here; my thanks goes to you nonetheless for any help you have given me to make my work easier. iii I give my special appreciation to my mother-in-law, Y.J. Jung for her love and patience. She did not miss a single day of praying for me for many years. Finally I would like to thank and acknowledge my family: my wife, Mehyun L. Park and my children, Jeeyun, and Phillipe. I would not have been able to complete this journey towards my Ph.D. degree without their love and many sacrifices.