SIMULATION OF HIGH-RESOLUTION RADAR POLARIMETRIC IMAGES - UNIFIED FULL-WAVE APPROACH

The unified full wave approach is used to generate polarimetric images of composite rough surfaces illuminated by high resolution radar (i.e ., real or synthetic aperture radars with small effective footprints). The unified full wave solutions account for Bragg scattering and spec ular point scattering in a self-consistent manner, therefore it is not necessary to decompose the surface into two surfaces with large and s mall roughness scales. The like and cross-polarized scattering cross-s ections for the rough sea surface are tilt modulated due to the presen ce of swell or ship wakes. Hydrodynamic effects such as velocity bunch ing are not considered here. The normal to an arbitrarily oriented mea n plane associated with the illuminated resolution cell (pixel) is cha racterized by the tilt angles Omega and tau, in and perpendicular to, a fixed reference plane of incidence associated with the radar. The li ke and cross polarized backscatter cross sections of a tilted resoluti on cell are expressed in terms of the angle of incidence Theta(0)(II) in the fixed reference coordinate system, the tilt angles of the resol ution cell Omega and tau, and elements of the Phase (Mueller) matrix t hat completely characterizes electromagnetic scattering from an untilt ed resolution cell.