Statistical temporal behaviour of pulse wave propagation through continuous random media

Pulse waves propagating through random media suffer distortions, such as fluctuation of arrival time, temporal broadening, and alteration of skewness and kurtosis, due to both the background medium and embedded irregularities. We carry out a study on the temporal behaviour of electromagnetic pulses propagating through random media using temporal moments and an analytic solution of a two-frequency mutual coherence function recently obtained by iteration. We treat the temporal characteristics sequentially, with general expressions obtained first. Then the concise forms are given for pulse propagation in the turbulent non-dispersive atmosphere and the ionosphere, with numerical calculations for the latter. The results show that the mean arrival time is dominated by the term propagating at group velocity, and small corrections arise from higher-order dispersion of the background medium and random scattering of irregularities, but the correction from dispersion of irregularities is neglected as it is so small. As for pulse broadening in trans-ionospheric propagation, the results show that contributions are mainly from the dispersion of the background ionosphere and scattering of electron density irregularities in most cases, and the contribution of dispersion of irregularities is so small that it can be neglected. Finally, we find that the temporal skewness of a trans-ionospheric pulse is negative and its energy is shifted to the leading edge, and the contributions from scattering and dispersion of irregularities dominate over those of background, so the latter can be neglected in most cases.     

Electromagnetic wave propagation in random media

The propagation of a narrow frequency band beam of electromagnetic waves in a medium with randomly varying index of refraction is considered. A novel formulation of the governing equation is proposed. An equation for the average Green function (or transition probability) can then be derived. A Fokker-Planck type equation is contained as a limiting case. The results are readily generalized to include the features of the random coupling model and it is argued that the present problem is particularly suited for an analysis of this type.     

Dynamic correlation in wave propagation in random media

Field spectra are analyzed to yield the time-resolved statistics of pulsed transmission through quasi-one-dimensional dielectric media with static disorder. The normalized intensity correlation function with displacement and polarization rotation for an incident pulse of linewidth sigma at delay time t is a function only of the field correlation function, which is identical to that found for steady-state excitation, and of kappa(sigma)(t), the residual degree of intensity correlation at points at which the field correlation function vanishes. The dynamic probability distribution of normalized intensity depends only upon kappa(sigma)(t). Steady-state statistics are recovered in the limit sigma-->0, in which kappa(sigma=0) is the steady-state degree of correlation.     

On the appearance of caustics for plane sound-wave propagation in moving random media

In this paper we derive expressions for the probability densities of the appearance of the first caustic for a plane sound wave propagating in moving random media. Our approach generalizes the previous work by White et al. and Klyatskin in the case of motionless media. It allows us to calculate analytically the probability density functions for two- and three-dimensional media and to express these functions in terms of the diffusion coefficient. Explicit equations are given for Gaussian and von Karman spectra of velocity fluctuations. If the random scalar or vectorial fluctuations of the medium have the same contribution to the refractive-index fluctuations, we demonstrate that in a moving medium caustics appear at shorter distances than in a non-moving one. The two-dimensional version of the theory is tested by numerical simulations in the case of velocity fluctuations with Gaussian spectra. Numerical results are in very good agreement with the theoretical predictions.     

Experimental study of electromagnetic wave propagation in dense random media

Controlled experiments have been conducted to measure the propagation of synthetically generated pulses in dense random media. The dense media were prepared by embedding spherical dielectric scatterers in a homogeneous background medium: the size and volume fraction of the scatterers were the controlled parameters. A network analyser-based system operating in the frequency domain was used to measure the electric field reflected and transmitted by slab-shaped samples of dense media as the source signal was swept from 26.5 to 40 GHz. An inverse Fourier transform was used to convert the frequency domain response into time domain pulse waveforms. The time domain response was then used to obtain pulse propagation velocity and attenuation in the controlled samples. The experimental results are shown to be in general agreement with dense medium theories.     

Low-frequency surface wave propagation along plane boundaries in fluid-saturated porous media

A method of the mechanics of a fluid-saturated porous medium is used to study the propagation of harmonic surface waves along the free boundary of such a medium, along the boundary between a porous medium and a fluid, and along the boundary between two porous half-spaces. It is shown that, at low frequencies (i.e., for waves with frequencies lower than the Biot characteristic frequency), the corresponding dispersion equations in zero-order approximation are reduced to the equations for an “equivalent” elastic medium. For the wave numbers of surface waves, corrections taking into account the generation of longitudinal waves of the second kind at the boundary are calculated. Examples of numerical solutions of dispersion equations for rock are presented.     

Theory of wave propagation in one-dimensional random media containing two-scale inhomogeneities

Pacific Oceanographic Institute, Far-Eastern Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 274–279, March, 1991.     

Path integral solution of the time-domain progressive wave equation and wave propagation in random media

A time-domain progressive wave equation is derived from the usual linear acoustic wave equation, and it is shown that the solution to this new equation can be expressed as a Feynman path integral. This path integral representation is used to derive the time-dependent statistics of acoustic fields propagating through random media.     

Singular value distribution of the propagation matrix in random scattering media

The distribution of singular values of the propagation operator in a random medium is investigated, in a backscattering configuration. Experiments are carried out with pulsed ultrasonic waves around 3 MHz, using an array of 64 programmable transducers placed in front of a random scattering medium. The impulse responses between each pair of transducers are measured and form the response matrix. The evolution of its singular values with time and frequency is computed by means of a short-time Fourier analysis. The mean distribution of singular values exhibits a very different behaviour in the single and multiple scattering regimes. The results are compared with random matrix theory. Once the experimental matrix coefficients are renormalized, experimental results and theoretical predictions are found to be in a very good agreement. Two kinds of random media have been investigated: a highly scattering medium in which multiple scattering predominates and a weakly scattering medium. In both cases, residual correlations that may exist between matrix elements are shown to be a key parameter. Finally, the possibility of detecting a target embedded in a random scattering medium based on the statistical properties of the strongest singular value is discussed.     

Functional Fokker-Planck formalism for wave propagation in random media under delocalized and weak localized regimes

The functional Fokker-Planck equation is used to obtain the phenomenological radiative transfer theory in the form of the modified Ambarzumian-Chandrasekhar equation which takes into account the backscattering enhancement effect from the 3D slab of a randomly inhomogeneous medium.     

Optimal beams for propagation through random media

The problem of maximizing the intensity that is transferred from a transmitter aperture to a receiver aperture is considered in which the propagation medium is random. Two optimization criteria are considered: maximal expected intensity transfer and minimal scintillation index. The beam that maximizes the expected intensity is shown to be fully coherent. Its coherent mode is determined as the principal eigenfunction for a kernel that is determined through the second-order moments of the propagation Green's function. The beam that minimizes the scintillation index is shown to be partially coherent in general, with its coherent modes determined by minimizing a quadratic form that has nonlinear dependence on the coherent-mode fields, and on the second- and fourth-order moments of the propagation Green's function.     

On propagation in continuous random media

Abstract

The analysis of wave propagation in continuous random media typically proceeds from the parabolic wave equation with back scatter neglected. A closed hierarchy of moment equations can be obtained by using the Novikov–Furutsu theorem. When the same procedure is applied in the spatial Fourier domain, one obtains a closed hierarchy of coupled moment equations for the forward- and back-scattered wavefields that is not restricted to narrow scattering angles nor to small local perturbations. The general equations are difficult to solve, but a Markov-like approximation is suggested by the form of the scattering terms. Simple algebraic solutions can be obtained if a narrow-angle-scatter approximation is then invoked. Thus, three distinct approximations are explicit in this analysis, namely closure, Markov and narrow-angle scatter.

The results show that the extinction of the coherent wavefield has a distinctly different form from the corresponding result for propagation in a sparse distribution of discrete scatteres. Furthermore, when the scatter is constrained to narrow forwardand back-scattered cones, there is no back-scatter enhancement. These results are discussed within the context of the extension of the spectral-domain formalism to discrete random media. The general continuous-media moment equations are developed but not solved. The results correct and extend an earlier analysis that used a perturbation approach to compute the scattering functions rather than the Novikov–Furutsu theorem.     

Microwave propagation in dense random media

Summary Using simple, approximate arguments, we obtain a formula that relates the average spacing between peaks in the transmitted intensityvs. wave frequency distribution of a single configuration of a random distribution of scatterers to the diffusion constant, sample thickness, and effective absorption length. The value of the diffusion constant obtained this way is found to be within 20% of the value obtained via intensity-intensity autocorrelation function techniques. The author of this paper has agreed to not receive the proofs for correction.