Chapter 2.3.6 - Scattering by Surfaces and Phase Screens

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the scattering of waves from one-dimensional random surfaces. The one-dimensional random surfaces that are described by their surface profile function are assumed to be a single-valued function of x1. The assumption that the surface profile function is a Gaussian random process means that it is completely characterized by its two-point correlation function. The result that the statistical properties of a Gaussian random process are completely determined by its two-point correlation function follows from the factorization properties of its higher moments. The chapter finally presents several approaches that are employed for the theoretical study of the scattering of waves from randomly rough surfaces. The approaches include largely analytic approaches—small-amplitude perturbation theory, the Kirchhoff approximation, the full-wave approach, and the method of reduced Rayleigh equations. The computer simulation approaches are based on Green's second integral identity and the method of ordered multiple interactions.