Spatial spectrum of a radar signal in glancing propagation above the sea surface

Pacific Oceanographic Institute, Far-East Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 325–327, March, 1991.     

Diffraction model of multiple-ray propagation above a rough surface at low grazing angles

On the basis of diffraction by wedge-like crests we present a theoretical interpretation of the peculiarities of millimeter and centimeter radiowave fields above a rough surface, in particular, a sea surface, that are experimentally observed when the elevation of one of the corresponding points is comparable with surface roughness heights.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 39, No. 5, pp. 547–558, May, 1996.     

Behaviour of scattering from a rough surface at small grazing angles

The particular problem of wave scattering at low grazing angles is of great interest because of its importance for the long-distance propagation of radio waves along the Earth's surface, radar observation of near surface objects, as well as solving many other fundamental and applied problems of remote sensing. One of the main questions is: how do the scattering amplitude and specific cross section behave for extremely small grazing angles? We consider the process of wave scattering by a statistically rough surface with the Neumann boundary condition. This model corresponds to sound scattering from a perfectly 'hard' surface (for example, the interface between air and the sea surface) or 'vertically' polarized electromagnetic waves scattered by a perfectly conducting one-dimensional (i.e. cylindrical) surface when the magnetic field vector is directed along the generating line of this cylindrical surface. We assume that the surface roughness is sufficiently small (in the sense of the Rayleigh parameter) and the surface is rigorously statistically homogeneous and therefore, infinite. We confine ourselves only to the first-order approximation of small perturbation theory and therefore consider every act of wave scattering in the Born approximation when the Bragg scattering process takes place. Only one resonant Fourier component of surface roughness is responsible for the scattering in a given direction. However, we take into account the attenuation of incident and scattered waves due to the multiple scattering processes on the path 'before' and 'after' a scattering event in a given direction. Also we consider every one of these multiple scattering events only in the Born approximation. The main result we have obtained is that for small grazing angles the scattering cross section of the diffuse component decreases as the second power of the grazing angles with respect to the incident and scattered directions, and as the fourth power of the grazing angle for the backscattering (radar) situation. Generalizing our results from plane-wave scattering to finite beams allows us to obtain the criterion on the beamwidth. For sufficiently narrow beams the multiple scattering processes do not play any role because of a short 'interaction path', and only single Bragg scattering determines the scattering amplitude (which does not tend to zero for small grazing angles). However, for sufficiently wide beams the result obtained for infinite plane waves becomes valid: due to the above-mentioned multiple scattering processes, the scattering amplitude tends to zero for small grazing angles. Consequently, the behaviour of the scattering cross section for small grazing angles depends on the radiation pattern width of the transmitting and receiving antennae: for sufficiently wide beams the scattering cross section decreases to zero at small grazing angles, but for narrow beams it tends to the finite non-zero value.     

Theory of ion reflection from amorphous surface at low glancing angles

A new theory of ion reflection from a smooth amorphous solid surface is developed. A continuous potential is introduced for describing the ion reflection from amorphous surfaces at low glancing angles. It is shown that the difference, between a true surface potential and a continuous one could be taken into account in terms of a correction factor, thus yielding a Fokker-Planck-type equation for a particle distribution in angle and transverse coordinate. Diffusion coefficients included in this equation are calculated with allowance for atom discrete positions and ion-electron collision effect. On the basis of the derived kinetic equation the angular and energy ion distributions in a reflected beam are analyzed. The presented theory, somewhat modified, can be used for describing ion reflection from a crystal surface as well.     

小掠射角下高斯谱粗糙海面反射损失建模

在散射能量基本为前向散射且集中在“镜面反射”方向的情况下,粗糙海面反射损失建模是声呐信号传播建模必不可少的一部分,尤其对于中远距离下浅海或者存在表面声道的水声环境,小掠射角(10°以内)下的粗糙海面反射损失建模尤为重要。首先基于高斯谱粗糙海面模型,通过高海况下的声传播试验数据处理分析了粗糙海面边界条件下的Ramsurf声传播模型的有效性,进而以Ramsurf声传播模型为基准,在小掠射角下,比较分析了Kirchhoff近似(KA)海面反射损失模型和小斜率近似(SSA)海面反射损失模型,数值计算结果表明,在小掠射角下SSA海面反射损失模型与Ramsurf计算结果较为吻合,是比较精确的海面反射损失模型。     

Spectral characteristics of a microwave radar signal backscattered by the sea surface at small incidence angles

We present a theoretical analysis of the Doppler-spectrum properties of a microwave radar signal scattered by the sea surface at small incidence angles. The dependences of Doppler-spectrum width and shift on the wind velocity and wave development stage and their azimuthal dependence are analyzed. The case of mixed sea (wind wave plus swell) is also considered. The JONSWAP spectrum model is used to describe sea waves. The study shows that Doppler-spectrum parameters are sensitive to variation of sea-surface state; for example, for the case of developed sea waves, an increase in wind velocity by 1 m/sec leads to increases in the Doppler-spectrum width and shift by 15 Hz and 3 Hz, respectively. It is shown that for the case of a moving radar the Doppler spectrum remains sensitive to variation of sea- surface state with a sufficiently narrow radar directivity pattern. Estimates show that in the case of a single sea- wave system on the surface, using Doppler-spectrum parameters we can, in principle, determine wave type (developing wind wave, developed wind wave, or swell), dominant wavelength, wave propagation direction, and wave height; wind velocity, direction, and acceleration distance can be determined for wind waves.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 39, No. 5, pp. 517–526, May, 1996.This paper was supported by the Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research (project 93-02-15892).     

FDTD investigation on the electromagnetic scattering from a target above a randomly rough sea surface

A finite-difference time-domain approach for electromagnetic scattering characteristic from a two-dimensional (2-D) infinitely long target with arbitrary cross-section above the one-dimensional (1-D) randomly rough sea surface is presented. Taking the composite scattering of rough sea surface and infinitely long cylinder as an example, the angular distribution of the scattering cross-section with different incident angles is calculated and it shows good agreement with the numerical result by the conventional Method of Moments (MOM). Finally, the influence of the windspeed on the sea surface, the incident angle, as well as the size and location of the target on the composite radar cross-section (RCS) with different polarisations is investigated in detail.     

Theory of radio wave scattering at a rough sea surface

The problem of the reflection of a plane single-frequency electromagnetic wave from a statistically rough dielectric boundary with arbitrary is solved in the perturbation approximation. The statistical characteristics (scattering cross section, change of polarization, and frequency spectrum) of a radar signal reflected from a rough sea surface are investigated. The model used for the surface—a small ripple superimposed on large waves—enables the perturbation theory approach to be extended to the decimeter and centimeter wave band.Izvestiya VUZ. Radiofizika, Vol. 9, No. 5, pp. 876–887, 1966     

Deflection of an electron beam with a 1.8-MeV energy incident at glancing angles on a dielectric surface

The first results of investigations into the effect of self-deviation of an electron beam with intermediate energy by a dielectric surface, previously discovered by the authors for the interaction of electrons with a glass surface, are presented in the paper. It is shown that optimizing the deflection process and choosing a dielectric target, angles of beam deflection of the order of 5–8° can be obtained and stabilized during subsequent irradiation of the target, which is especially important for applications of this effect to electron-beam optics. Scientific Research Institute of Nuclear Physics at Tomsk Polytechnic University. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 9, pp. 12–17, September, 1999.     

Study on electromagnetic backscattering and Doppler spectrum of a moving spherical target above time-varying sea surface

The surface electric current of the sea surface and the first-order scattering field from the spherical target were obtained by employing Physical Optics method and Mie theory, respectively. The backscattering field of the time-evolving sea surface was calculated by using Kirchhoff Approximation. Meanwhile, by taking the advantage of a newly developed technique that utilizes the reciprocity theorem, the difficulty in formulating the secondary coupling scattering fields from the spherical target above the sea surface was reduced. The dependence of the secondary coupling backscattering field on the size and the position of the spherical target was discussed, and the characteristic of the Doppler spectrum of the composite backscattering field with different incident angles was analyzed in detail. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 60571058) and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (Grant No. 20070701010)     

Electromagnetic radiation from relativistic positrons reflected at small angles by a solid surface

The spectral, angular and polarization characteristics of the electromagnetic radiation generated by relativistic positrons reflected at small angles by a solid surface are obtained in the dipole approximation of classical electrodynamics. The effects investigated are produced by coherent interaction of the reflected positrons with atomic chains on the solid surface. The interference effects accompanying positron multireflection by two parallel solid surfaces are discussed.     

Detection of a small defect on a rough surface

We report experimental results that show that the far-field correlation function is sensitive to a small local change in rough-surface geometry, where the speckle spatial correlation rather than the sample ensemble average is adopted. The angular cross-correlation function of the far-field speckles scattered by one-dimensional random rough surfaces is measured when a polarized beam of light is incident upon the rough surface from vacuum, where one part of the surface used is a thin dielectric film deposited upon a glass substrate and the other part is identical to the first except for a localized defect. We envisage application of this sensitivity property to inspection of a sample with a defect by means of speckle mapping.