Introduction.tex

\chapter{Introduction}\label{Chapter:Introduction}

\newthought{This book} is intended for those interested in gaining practical skills with the statistical analysis of Synthetic Aperture Radar -- SAR data.

Our platform of choice is \texttt R, because
\begin{itemize}
\item of its excellent numerical properties\cite{AlmironSilvaMM:2009}%
\cite{OctaveScilabMatlabCAM}
\item it is available for almost every possible combination of hardware and operational system,
\item it is FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software),
\item there are active and supportive communities always ready to provide help,
\item it is the golden standard for the production of quality graphical output,
\item it is able to interact with a number of other platforms.
\end{itemize}

Whenever possible, we will use the \texttt{ggplot2} library\cite{HitchhikerGuideGGPLO2,ggplot2Wickman,DataVisualizationaPracticalIntroduction2019}.
It is our opinion that this library allows producing plots of immediate visual quality and, with this, it is easier to communicate with the audience.

We will not make a thorough introduction to Probability and Statistics.
The reader is referred to, among other excellent books, the works by
\citet{BickelDocksum77} and
\citet{ModernIntroProbStat:Dekkingetal:2005}.
More advanced and/or specific books will be recommended throughout this text.


Random variables will be denoted in capital letters ($X$, $Y$, $Z$),
their outcomes in lower case ($x$, $y$, $z$).
Random vectors and matrices will be in black capital letters ($\bm X$, $\bm Y$, $\bm Z$), and their outcomes in black lower case ($\bm x$, $\bm y$, $\bm z$).