Surface backscattering evaluation by means of the facet model for remote sensing applications

This paper deals with the simulation of the backscattered electric field from a random surface being characterized by some statistical parameters. The approach to this problem has not been undertaken from a statistical point of view; on the contrary, an electromagnetic approach has been used in order to evaluate the backscattered field from the surface under examination, being generated as a realization of a random process and hence having a different electromagnetic behavior from another surface belonging to the same random process. Only geometrical contributions have been taken into account-terrain material contributions or other contributions have not been considered. Lots of analytical models are available, reporting the average backscatter as a function of the statistical parameters of the surface. The backscattered echo simulated using this approach, averaged over many surfaces from the same random process, has been compared with some analytical models and a good agreement has been found. More realistic behavior than the one predicted by the analytical models at large incidence angles has been found. Comparison has also been made with measured data, after extraction of the terrain material contribution. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd