Wigner-Ville distribution for pulse propagation in random media: pulsed plane wave

The time-frequency Wigner-Ville distribution for a pulsed plane-wave signal propagating in a continuous random medium is found, based on the previously derived modal series expression for the two-frequency coherence function. The theory can address propagation in any homogeneous isotropic random medium, but closed-form expressions are specifically derived for a general power-law medium. Two alternative formulations are presented: a modal-wavefront approach wherein each mode is asymptotically transformed to the time domain and a collective approach wherein the mode series is summed collectively and then transformed to the time domain using pole contributions. The physical interpretation of these two different representations in the time-frequency domain as either a superposition of localized wavefronts or collective excitations is established, and their applications to the calculation of local moments are considered.