COMPARISON OF MODELED BACKSCATTER FROM SLIGHTLY ROUGH CURVED SURFACESWITH NUMERICAL PREDICTIONS

The slightly rough facet model has often been used to describe radar s cattering from two-scale rough surfaces. Moment method scattering calc ulations are used to investigate the validity of a theoretical method to determine the maximum allowable facet sizes. The method is shown to give accurate facet sizes for rough surfaces with large-scale curvatu res comparable to that expected on the ocean surface at angles of inci dence where the traditional two-scale scattering model has proven to b e valid.