Scattering by single ice needles and plates at 30 GHz

Because of the small loss tangent of ice at 30-50 GHz, significant depolarization of satellite-to-ground communication signals could occur due to the presence of cirrus clouds in their paths. It is known that cirrus clouds basically consist of ice needles and plates. Extensive calculations have been performed for the problem of scattering by a family of ice needles and plates for various length-to-width ratios ranging from 1 to 10. Scattering results with special attention to induced cross-polarized fields will be presented.