HIGH-FREQUENCY APPROXIMATIONS TO THE PHYSICAL OPTICS SCATTERING INTEGRAL

We discuss two high frequency (HF) approximations to the Physical Optics (PO) scattering integral for the far field radar backscatter from a general curved edged reflecting surface viewed at arbitrary aspect. The PO scattering integral is first approximated as the sum of a specular effect and an edge effect, where the latter is represented explicitly as a certain line integral evaluated over the boundary edge of the reflector. A closed form result is then obtained by applying the method of Stationary Phase to the line integral. With the exception of singularities that can occur at caustics, or when specular point falls on the boundary edge, these HF approximations are found to work reasonably well for smooth surfaces whose Gaussian curvatures have constant sign (positive or negative, but never zero).