Scattering of solar and atmospheric background radiation incident to target

Abstract

Light scattering property of environment is very important in theoretical study and application of the remote sensing. What's more, it is valuable for infrared radiation, imaging, and the detection of target and tracking. In this paper, solar and atmospheric background radiation, and their scattering property from target are discussed. According to electromagnetic radiant and scattering theories, BRDF (Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function) is introduced. BRDF is a very important quantity that shows the radiation and reflection feature of target. Lowtran model is an effective method of calculating the spectral distribution of solar and atmospheric radiation. Here it is applied to compute solar and atmospheric background radiation, which is incident to target. The intensity of incident light and the scattering radiance are linked by BRDF. The relative equations are deduced. Thus, the light spatial and spectral scattering distribution is given. As a special example, for the Lambert's surface, the equations are simplified. As a result, the spatial and spectral distribution scattering curves of solar and atmospheric background radiation incident to target are present. They show the different spatial and spectral scattering features of target, at the same time, the coherent and incoherent scattering quantities are discussed.