We have developed a model for electromagnetic wave propagation in and
scattering from random media, Scattering potentials are introduced to
account for the reflections and refractions from boundaries. The diffe
rential cross sections for backscatter are calculated in the Kirchhoff
approximation, We find that, in single scattering processes, the pola
rizations of differential cross sections are conserved and the differe
ntial cross sections are independent of the polarizations. The cross-p
olarized differential cross sections are symmetric and solely attribut
ed to multi-scattering processes. Our results are in good agreement wi
th experimental measurements. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.