Accession Number:

ADA076249

Title:

Radar Backscatter from a Vegetated Terrain. A Discrete Scattering Approach

Descriptive Note:

Contract rept.

Corporate Author:

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIV WASHINGTON DC SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE

Personal Author(s):

• Lang, Roger H.
• Sokolakis, Spiro P.

Report Date:

1979-06-01

Pagination or Media Count:

65.0

Abstract:

This report studies radar backscattering from a vegetated terrain. The vegetation is modelled by spherical water droplets which can be treated as discrete scatterers. The vegetation is assumed sufficiently lossy so that the underlying ground is not noticeable. The method of Foldy is used to evaluate the mean field in the vegetation when the wavelength of the incident radiation is large compared to the droplet size. Once an equivalent dielectric constant for the vegetation is obtained by the Foldy technique, single scattering is employed to evaluate the backscattering cross section. The resulting expression is found to compare favorably with experimental data. In addition to the three dimensional work, a one dimensional problem is analyzed. This analysis is compared with the Foldy approximation in the high density limit.

Descriptors:

• *ELECTROMAGNETIC SCATTERING
• *RADAR CROSS SECTIONS
• *VEGETATION
• FOURIER TRANSFORMATION
• WATER
• BACKSCATTERING
• DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES
• COEFFICIENTS
• RAYLEIGH SCATTERING
• DROPS
• GREENS FUNCTIONS

Subject Categories:

• Active and Passive Radar Detection and Equipment
• Electricity and Magnetism

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE