Bistatic sea clutter: simulations and measurements

Abstract

The problem of electromagnetic scattering from a randomly rough surface is analyzed using the Kirchhoff approximation (stationary phase, scalar approximation), the small perturbation model and the two-scale model. The authors show that physical and geometrical optics approximations can be used for a rough sea surface. A small perturbation model gives a satisfactory solution. Unfortunately, it only applies to a smooth sea surface. Therefore, these methods have been shown to be limited in their regions of validity. Comparisons between the numerical calculations and the models are made for various surface rms heights and correlation lengths both normalized to the incident wave number (denoted by k/spl sigma/ and kL, respectively). The two-scale model proposed in this paper is the method which tries to conciliate the two previous aspects. One application is made in the ocean surface case. A set of experimental data, describing simultaneous bistatic radar cross section and forward radar cross section measurements of sea clutter taken with a moderately high resolution X-band scatterometer system operating near grazing incidence for both horizontal and vertical polarizations over a range of low grazing bistatic angles, is used but not presented in this paper to examine the applicability of bistatic scattering models.