Analysis of scattering from very large three-dimensional rough surfaces using MLFMM and ray-based analyses

Several techniques are considered for the analysis of electromagnetic scattering from rough ocean surfaces. A rigorous Multi-level Fast Multipole Method (MLFMM) is employed, as well as a high-frequency ray-based solution. The MLFMM analysis is implemented in scalable form, allowing consideration of scattering from very large surfaces (in excess of 100/spl lambda//spl times/100/spl lambda/, where A represents the electromagnetic wavelength). Plane-wave incidence is assumed, and a key aspect of the MLFMM study involves investigating techniques for rough-surface truncation. The rough surface is modeled as a target placed in the presence of an infinite half-space background; to minimize edge effects, the surface is smoothly tapered into the planar half space. We also consider the technique of employing a resistive taper on the edges of the rough surface. These two truncation techniques are compared in accuracy, memory requirements (RAM), and in computational time (CPU). The MLFMM results are used to validate an approximate ray-based high-frequency model that allows rapid analysis of large surfaces. The computational results are compared to measured forward-scattering data from scaled laboratory measurements, used to simulate scattering from an ocean surface.     

Forward-backward method for scattering from dielectric rough surfaces

The iterative forward-backward (FB) method is a recently proposed efficient technique for numerical evaluation of scattering from perfectly conducting rough surfaces. Extension of the method to include scattering from imperfect conducting surfaces, with a high imaginary part of the complex dielectric constant, has also been proposed. The FB method is further generalized to analyze scattering from dielectric rough surfaces with arbitrary complex dielectric constant. Electric and magnetic equivalent surface currents are split into forward and backward components and equations governing these current components are obtained. As a solution, an iterative scheme is proposed and its convergence rate is analyzed. Finally, the effectiveness of the method is assessed by comparing the obtained scattering results with "exact" ones, computed by employing the usual method of moments (MoM).     

Forward-backward method with spectral acceleration for scattering from Layered rough surfaces

A fast method of moments is presented to calculate electromagnetic wave scattering from layered one-dimensional rough surfaces. The formulation is provided for M stratified homogeneous regions, separated by M-1 rough surfaces, and solved using point matching and pulse basis functions. Compared to the single surface case, the solution of scattering from M-1 surfaces requires significantly more memory and computational time. To facilitate the solution, the forward-backward method with spectral acceleration is applied. As an example, a dielectric layer on a perfect electric conductor surface is studied. The numerical results are compared with the analytical solution for layered flat surfaces to partly validate the formulation. The accuracy, efficiency, and convergence of the method are then studied for various rough surfaces and layer permittivities.     

Bistatic scattering from three-dimensional layered rough surfaces

An analytical method to calculate the bistatic-scattering coefficients of a three-dimensional layered dielectric structure with slightly rough interfaces is presented. The interfaces are allowed to be statistically distinct, but possibly dependent. The waves in each region are represented as a superposition of an infinite number of up- and down-going spectral components whose amplitudes are found by simultaneously matching the boundary conditions at both interfaces. A small-perturbation formulation is used up to the first order, and the scattered fields are derived. The calculation intrinsically takes into account multiple scattering processes between the boundaries. The formulation is then validated against known solutions to special cases. New results are generated for several cases of two- and three-layer media, which will be directly applicable for modeling of the signals from radar systems and subsequent estimation of a layered medium subsurface properties, such as moisture content and layer depths.     

Bistatic specular scattering from rough dielectric surfaces

An experimental investigation was conducted to determine the nature of bistatic scattering from rough dielectric surfaces at 10 GHz. This paper focusses specifically on the dependence of coherent and incoherent scattered fields on surface roughness for the specular direction. The measurements, which were conducted for a smooth surface with ks<0.2 (where k=2π/λ and s is the RMS surface height) and for three rough surfaces with ks=0.5, 1.39, and 1.94, included observations over the range of incidence angles from 20° to 65° for both horizontal and vertical polarizations. For the coherent component, the reflectivity was found to behave in accordance with the prediction of the physical optics model, although it was observed that the Brewster angle exhibited a small negative shift with increasing roughness. The first-order solution of physical optics also provided good agreement with observations for hh-polarized incoherent scattering coefficient, but it failed to predict the behavior of the vv-polarized scattering coefficient in the angular range around the Brewster angle. A second-order solution is proposed which appears to partially address the deficiency of the physical optics model     

Application of stochastic second-degree method to electromagnetic scattering from randomly rough surfaces

Application of a stochastic second-degree method in combination with the banded matrix canonical grid (BMIA/CAG) method for two- dimensional electromagnetic scattering from PEC randomly rough surfaces is presented. This method can improve convergence while preserving the computational attractiveness of the BMIA/CAG method. Numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Electromagnetic scattering from perfectly conducting rough surfaces(a new full wave method)

A method that does not make use of the telegraphist's equations and takes into account the two-dimensional roughness of the surface from the start is developed. It is shown that the scattering coefficients obtained agree with those given in earlier work by E. Bahar (1973, 1987). The method is based on reducing the three-dimensional scattering problem to a two-dimensional problem by expanding each rectangular component of Maxwell's equations in terms of local basis functions along the perpendicular direction to the mean surface. The transformed two-dimensional field equations are solved using Fourier transforms. The full wave solutions are also compared with the first-order perturbation solutions, the Kirchhoff-type solutions, and integral equation results     

Preconditioned iterative solution of scattering from rough surfaces

Extensions to the functionally identical forward-backward (FB) and method of ordered multiple interactions iterative techniques have been introduced that improve the convergence characteristics with specific scattering geometries. These extensions are shown to be mathematically equivalent to applying preconditioners to the discretized integral equation that is iteratively solved. The same preconditioners can be used with any iterative solution technique. Numerical examples show that the generalized minimal residual (GMRES) and bi-conjugate gradient-stable (BICGSTAB) algorithms give similarly rapid convergence when applied to a preconditioned discretized integral equation     

Wave scattering from a large sphere with rough surface

Wave scattering from a rough perfectly conducting sphere is considered. Use is made of the reformulated current method in which the object is replaced by a current distribution radiating into an unbounded media. The scattered field components are obtained in terms of the joint characteristic function defining the roughness.     

Monte Carlo simulations of wave scattering from lossy dielectricrandom rough surfaces using the physics-based two-grid method and thecanonical-grid method

In using the method of moments to solve scattering by lossy dielectric surfaces, usually a single dense grid (SDG) with 30 points per wavelength is required for accurate results. A single coarse grid (SCG) of ten points per wavelength does not give accurate results. However, the central processing unit (CPU) and memory requirements of SDG are much larger than that of SCG. In a physics-based two-grid method (PBTG) two grids are used: a dense grid and a coarse grid. The method is based on the two observations: (1) Green's function of the lossy dielectric is attenuative and (2) the free-space Green's function is slowly varying on the dense grid. In this paper, the PBTG method is combined with the banded-matrix iterative approach/canonical grid method to solve rough surface scattering problem for both TE and TM cases and also for near grazing incidence. We studied cases of dielectric permittivities as high as (25+i)ϵ₀ and incidence angle up to 85°. Salient features of the numerical results are: (1) an SCG has poorer accuracy for TM case than TE case; (2) PBTG-banded-matrix iterative approach/canonical grid BMIA/CAG method speeds up CPU and preserves the accuracy; it has an accuracy comparable to single dense grid and yet has CPU comparable to single coarse grid; (3) PBTG-BMIA/CAG gives accurate results for emissivity calculations and also for low grazing backscattering problems (LGBA); and (4) the computational complexity and the memory requirements of the present algorithm are O(N log(N)) and O(N), respectively, where N is the number of surface unknowns on the coarse grid     

An efficient algorithm for electromagnetic scattering from rough surfaces using a single integral equation and multilevel sparse-matrix canonical-grid method

An efficient algorithm for wave scattering from two-dimensional lossy rough surfaces is proposed. It entails the use of a single magnetic field integral equation (SMFIE) in conjunction with a multilevel sparse-matrix canonical-grid (MSMCG) method. The Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) triangular discretization is adopted to better model the rough surface than the pulse basis functions used in the well-established SMCG method. Using the SMFIE formulation, only one unknown per interior edge of the triangular mesh approximating the rough surface is required, and the iterative solution to the moment equation converges more rapidly than that of the conventional coupled equations for dielectric rough surfaces. The MSMCG method extends the applicability of the SMCG method to rougher surfaces. Parallel implementation of the proposed method enables us to model dielectric surfaces up to a few thousand square wavelengths. Simulation results are presented as bistatic scattering coefficients for Gaussian randomly rough surfaces.     

大粗糙度表面激光散射特性实验研究

本文利用激光散射自动测量系统,对经喷丸处理后的钢基粗糙表面及其喷漆表面的后向激光雷达散射截面(LRCS)进行了测量。测量波长分别为λ=633nm和λ=904nm.在λ=904nm,利用粗糙面电磁散射理论的基尔霍夫方法对上述样片进行了理论计算,其中将粗糙表面视为双尺度模型,根据驻留相位法和标量近似法理论计算双尺度模型随机粗糙表面的散射强度角分布,其理论值与实验测量结果有较好的吻合。     

Parallel analysis of electromagnetic scattering from random rough surfaces

An efficient approach for simulation of random rough surface scattering is developed based on using a single integral equation formulation and a multilevel sparse-matrix canonical-grid method. Merits of the scheme are demonstrated using two wind-driven ocean surfaces, one which is very rough and the other large in size.     

粗糙平面的激光散射特性研究

为了检测目标的边缘信息,采用激光扫描目标表面、通过回波信号变化来得到目标的边缘信息的方法,利用随机面元模型,分析了刚性随机粗糙平面的激光散射特点,建立了实用化的随机粗糙平面激光散射理论模型,并给出了正入射时几种情况下的激光散射图像,分析了平面目标的激光散射能量计算方法,仿真了光束在平面目标表面做正弦摆动时,光斑在不同位置的反射能量,利用激光信号的强度变化,采用峰(谷)检出法或者过零检出法就可以得到物体的边缘信息。结果表明,通过回波信号的变化,可以得到目标的边缘轮廓。     

Electromagnetic scattering from slightly rough surfaces withinhomogeneous dielectric profiles

Remote sensing of soil moisture using microwave sensors require accurate and realistic scattering models for rough soil surfaces. In the past, much effort has been devoted to the development of scattering models for either perfectly conducting or homogeneous rough surfaces. In practice, however, the permittivity of most soil surfaces is nonuniform, particularly in depth, for which analytical solution does not exist. The variations in the permittivity of a soil medium can easily be related to its soil moisture profile and soil type using the existing empirical models. In this paper, analytical expressions for the bistatic scattering coefficients of soil surfaces with slightly rough interface and stratified permittivity profile are derived. The scattering formulation is based on a new approach where the perturbation expansion of the volumetric polarization current instead of the tangential fields is used to obtain the scattered field. Basically, the top rough layer is replaced with an equivalent polarization current and, using the volumetric integral equation in conjunction with the dyadic Green's function of the remaining stratified half-space medium, the scattering problem is formulated. Closed-form analytical expressions for the induced polarization currents to any desired order are derived, which are then used to evaluate the bistatic scattered fields up to and including the third order. The analytical solutions for the scattered fields are used to derive the complete second-order expressions for the backscattering coefficients as well as the statistics of phase difference between the scattering matrix elements. The theoretical results are shown to agree well with the backscatter measurements of rough surfaces with known dielectric profiles and roughness statistics     

Effect of shadowing on electromagnetic scattering from rough oceanwavelike surfaces at small grazing angles

A hybrid moment-method/geometrical-theory-of-diffraction technique (MM/GTD) has been implemented to numerically calculate the electromagnetic scattering from one-dimensionally rough surfaces at extreme illumination angles (down to 0° grazing). The hybrid approach allows the extension of the modeled scattering surface to infinity, avoiding the artificial edge diffraction that prevents use of the standard moment method at the smallest grazing angles, Numerical calculation of the backscattering from slightly rough large-scale surfaces approximating ocean wave features shows that roughness in strongly shadowed regions can contribute significantly to the total backscatter at vertical polarization. This is observed when the shadowing obstacle is several wavelengths high, and the magnitude of the shadow-region contribution does not depend on the radius-of-curvature of the shadowing feature. Strongly shadowed roughness does not significantly contribute to the backscatter at horizontal polarization, although weakly shadowed roughness near the incidence shadow boundary does. The calculations indicate that a shadowing-corrected two-scale model may be able to predict the distributed-surface portion of the sea-surface scattering from the ocean surface at grazing angles down to about 15°, but at lower grazing the shadowing and large-scale curvature of the surface prevent the establishment of a Bragg resonance and invalidate the model     

Numerical simulation of scattering from rough surfaces: awavelet-based approach

In this paper, a preliminary study is carried out to demonstrate the application of wavelets for improving the computation time and reducing computational memory required for evaluating the statistics of the scattered field from rough surfaces using the method of moments (MoM) in conjunction with a Monte Carlo simulation. In specific, Haar and the first order B-spline wavelet basis functions are applied to the MoM formulation of one-dimensional rough surfaces in order to compare the computation time and sparsity for wavelets in the same family but of higher order. Since the scattering coefficient (the second moment of the backscatter field per unit area) is a gentle function of the surface parameters and the radar attributes, it is demonstrated that a relatively high thresholding level can be applied to the impedance matrix, which leads to a sparser impedance matrix and faster computation time. It is also shown that applying a high threshold level the coefficients of the high-order wavelets would increase out of proportion, however, the effect of these current components averages out when computing the scattering coefficients. The resulting sparse impedance matrices are solved efficiently using fast search routines such as the conjugate gradient method. A systematic study is carried out to investigate the effect of different threshold levels on the accuracy versus computing speed criterion. The computed scattering coefficients are compared to previous results computed using a conventional pulse basis function as well as the existing theoretical solutions for rough surfaces. It is shown that wavelet basis functions provide substantial reductions in both memory requirements and computation time     

Experimental studies of bistatic scattering from two-dimensionalconducting random rough surfaces

Despite the recent development of analytical and numerical techniques for problems of scattering from two-dimensional rough surfaces, very few experimental studies were available for verification. The authors present the results of millimeter-wave experiments on scattering from two-dimensional conducting random rough surfaces with Gaussian surface roughness statistics. Machine-fabricated rough surfaces with controlled roughness statistics were examined. Special attention was paid to surfaces with large rms slopes (ranging from 0.35 to 1.00) for which enhanced backscattering is expected to take place. Experimentally, such enhancement was indeed observed in both the copolarized and cross-polarized returns. In addition, it was noticed that at moderate angles of incidence, the scattering profile as a function of observation angle is fairly independent of the incident polarization and operating frequency. This independence justifies the use of the geometric optics approximation embodied in the Kirchhoff formulation for surfaces with large surface radius of curvature. When compared with the experimental data, this analytical technique demonstrates good agreement with the experimental data     

Analysing EM scattering from randomly rough surfaces using stochastic second-degree iterative method, sparse matrix algorithm and Chebyshev approximation

A new algorithm for analysing electromagnetic (EM) scattering from randomly rough surfaces is presented. This algorithm combines the stochastic second-degree iterative method with the sparse matrix algorithm to achieve high computational efficiency, and further uses the Chebyshev approximation to replace the Taylor expansion for the weak interaction between two points beyond mutual neighbourhoods. A numerical example demonstrates the suitability of the proposed method for rough surfaces with rms height larger than three wavelengths.