2-DIMENSIONAL MICROWAVE-SCATTERING BY FLUCTUATIONS OF PLASMA-DENSITY AND MAGNETIC-FIELD

A system of 2D full-wave equations is solved for the case of microwave scattering by plasma density and magnetic field fluctuations near the cut-off layer. The 2D field structure in ordinary-to-ordinary scatter ing (O --> O), extraordinary-to-extraordinary scattering (X --> X) and O --> X, X --> O mode conversion processes is studied as well as the influence of refraction, side scattering, diffraction on both X- and O -mode reflection near the cut-off layer. For the case of relatively la rge antenna size the expressions obtained reveal high sensitivity of t he scattered field to the plasma disturbance wavenumber in the transve rse direction. For the horn size of 1-2 wavelengths the sensitivity is weak. Numerical examples exhibit multisource spatial distribution of the scattered field. Resonance features of modes scattered by wave-sha ped fluctuations were found to be similar to the ID case.