Scattering of Solar and Atmospheric Background Radiation from a Target

Light scattering property of environment is very important in theoretical study and application of the remote sensing. What's more, it is valuable for infrared radiation, imaging, and the detection of target and tracking. In this paper, solar and atmospheric background radiation, and their scattering property from target are discussed. BRDF (Biodirectional Reflectance Distribution Function) is a very important quantity that shows the radiation and reflection feature of target. According to electromagnetic radiant and scattering theories, the relationship between laser radar scattering cross section (LRCS) and BRDF is introduced. LOWTRAN model is an effective method of calculating the spectral distribution of solar and atmospheric radiation. Here it is applied to compute solar and atmospheric background radiation scattered from a target. The relative equations are deduced. Thus, the spatial and spectral distribution of scattering light is given. As a special example, for the Lambert's surface, the equations are simplified. As a result, the spatial and spectral distributions scattering radiation of solar and atmospheric background from a rough painted surface are present. The scattering of solar radiation plays a primary role in MIR region, but scattering of atmospheric background radiation is higher in LIR region. At the same time, there is obviously specular reflectance for solar radiation due to coherent scattering from rough surface.