AN IMPROVED TWO-SCALE MODEL WITH VOLUME SCATTERING FOR THE DYNAMIC OCEAN SURFACE

Abstract

The effects of the surface slopes joint probability density, the shadowing function, the skewness of sea waves and the curvature of the surface on the backscattering from the ocean surface are discussed and an improved two-scale model modified by these four aspects is used to calculate the backscattering coefficient of the dynamic ocean surface. In order to deal with the surface skewness driven by wind, a new complementary term derived from the small perturbation method is included in the improved model, in which the Fourier transform of the third-order cumulant function, surface bispectrum, is employed. On this basis, with the oceanic whitecap coverage taken into account, a composite model for predicting the ocean surface backscattering coefficient is constructed tentatively, which incorporates the volume scattering into the total one. Finally, with the vector radiative transfer (VRT) theory employed, numerical illustrations are carried out for the backscattering coefficients versus wind speed, incidence angle and azimuth angle, respectively. The predictions of the composite model are verified in Ku- and Ka-bands through the comparison of numerical results with many sets of measured data and the aircraft measurement experiment carried out in ZHOUSHAN sea area also supports this model.