Backscattering of Radar Waves by Vegetated Terrain.
Abstract
This report presents a vector theory for the backscattering of electromagnetic radar waves from vegetation. The basic technique employed in the solution required simulating the vegetation with a random medium. This medium possesses an electrical permittivity that is generated by a continuous random process and is characterized by a particular probability density function. A solution for the radar backscatter coefficient is obtained in terms of the statistical characteristics of the random medium. A comparison of the theory with experimental data is given. Insight is given into the nature of depolarization, but explicit results for the depolarized terms are not obtained at this time because of the complexity and difficulty of the solution. Some of the conclusions of this work are: a theory has been developed for computing the like polarized (HH and VV) radar backscatter coefficients from certain types of vegetation by using a vector renormalization approach; no rigorous quantitative comparison of theory with experiment was possible; however, qualitative comparisons indicate reasonable agreement; and although no explicit solution was obtained for the depolarization components, it was learned that one cause of depolarization is the anisotropy associated with the correlation function of the dielectric fluctuations. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA047669
Entities
People
- Richard A. Hevenor
Organizations
- Geospatial Research Laboratory