Introduction to Microwave Scattering and Emission Models for Users
3
1.2 ORGANIZATION
Surface scattering is caused by dielectric discontinuities at all points on a surface
boundary; while volume scattering is caused by dielectric discontinuities distrib-
uted throughout a volume. Thus, a bare Earth surface can generate surface scatter-
ing but when it is covered by vegetation, snow or a layer of loose dirt, there will be
volume scattering as well. It is important to note that to an electromagnetic wave, a
true surface is a continuous surface relative to the electromagnetic wavelength, for
example, any crack in the surface or pebbles standing on a surface must be small
compared to the wavelength. Thus, a plowed field may act as a soil surface or as a
collection of objects (soil clots) sitting on a soil surface depending on the exploring
frequency. In the latter case, the problem is no longer a pure surface scattering
problem. Hence, two types of models are discussed in this book: one type deals
exclusively with surface scattering and emission models with a variety of surface
conditions, and the other type provides scattering or emission models for surfaces
with some kind of cover, which requires the consideration of volume scattering and
surface-volume interaction.
In choice of models, preference is given to simple scattering and emission
models that are easy to evaluate, have an algebraic form, or have a wide range of
applicability in frequency, angular range, polarization, and/or roughness scales. In
surface scattering, each chapter deals with only one scattering model and a variety
of scene conditions. For example, in Chapter 2 we present the small perturbation,
surface backscattering model (SPMB) by giving explicit expressions of the model.
This model is for small-scale roughness. We consider five different surface types
defined by five different surface correlation functions. A correlation function nor-
malized to the surface variance, , usually contains only one parameter, the corre-
lation length, , for example, the exponential correlation function, .
Other correlation functions such as the x-power correlation function,
, represents a class of surfaces instead of just one
type of surface. This is because we have an additional parameter to choose in the x-
power correlation by selecting different values of x. Associated with each scatter-
ing model a computer program in Mathematica 5.0 is prepared as a package, which
has a functional name, . The arguments of this function
are the surface, geometric, physical, and system parameters along with the symbol,
sp, which specifies one of the five correlation functions to be selected by the user.
The program is set up to evaluate this function with outputs in backscattering coef-
ficients. It can also plot the model results along with experimental data, which have
to be entered separately in a list format to allow comparisons between model pre-
dictions and measurements.
σ
2
LrL⁄–[]exp
ρ r() 1 rL⁄()
2
+[]
x–
x 1>,=
SPMB f σ L θε
r
sp x,,,,,,[]