Sentinel-1 can collect several different images from the same series of pulses by using its antenna to receive specific polarisations simultaneously. Sentinel-1 is a phase-preserving dual polarisation SAR system. It can transmit a signal in either horizontal (H) or vertical (V) polarisation, and then receive in both H and V polarisations. Dual polarisation Level-1 Single Look Complex (SLC) products contain complex values. In addition to the backscatter intensity that can be measured from each single polarisation, the inter-channel phase information allows to perform enhanced analysis of backscattering properties.Targets on the ground have distinctive polarisation signatures reflecting different polarisations with different intensities and converting one polarisation into another. For example, volume scatterers (e.g. forest canopy) have different polarisation properties than surface scatterers (e.g. sea surface). Polarimetric techniques such as polarimetric target decomposition (eigenvector-based, model-based, ...) allow the separation of different scattering contributions and can be used to extract information about the scattering process. Dedicated dual-Pol SAR classification techniques allow improved classification of point targets and distributed target areas.The following RADARSAT-2 image of Flevoland in the Netherlands shows the difference in intensities from VH (left) and VV (centre). The composite RGB (colour) image on the right was created using the VV channel for red, VH channel for green and the ratio |VV| / |VH| for blue.