Emissivities and back-scattering coefficients of random lossy dielectric rough surfaces at microwave frequencies based on 3-dimensional numerical simulations

Abstract

Presents results for full three-dimensional simulations of numerical solutions of Maxwell equations for random rough surfaces. Emissivities and back-scattering coefficients are calculated for soil surfaces and ocean surfaces at microwave frequencies. This is unlike analytical methods or empirical models in that different roughness parameters are used for different microwave frequencies and for active and passive remote sensing. With advances in computational electromagnetics and available computer resources, we calculate 3-dimensional Maxwell equation solutions with a 2-D rough surface for practical remote sensing applications. Highlights of our numerical approach are: (i) the sparse-matrix canonical grid method (SMCG) and the physics-based two-grid method (PBTG) are used. (ii) An algorithm has been implemented for parallel computing. Dense discretization of the surfaces is used because of high permittivity and the energy conservation check is verified. We present results for soil surfaces in L- and C-bands, and for ocean surfaces at 19 GHz.