Theoretical and experimental study of radar scattering and simulation. Part 1: Theory

The objective is to develop theoretical radar backscatter models for targets needed for radar simulation. In particular, vegetation covered terrain has been given special attention. The models should provide polarization, frequency and angular variations of the radar backscattering coefficient which is an input parameter to the equation governing the graytone level of radar images. Theoretically, scattering from a natural terrain such as a vegetation canopy over soil comes from three processes: (a) volume scattering from the vegetation, (b) surface scattering from the underlying soil and (c) combined volume and surface scattering due to scattered waves which have interacted with both soil and vegetation before returning to radar. Results summarized in this report deal mainly with improvement and new findings in (a) and (b); an attempt to account for (c) has been carried out for an emission model.