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Near grazing scattering from non-Gaussian ocean surfacesWe investigate the behavior of the scattered electromagnetic waves from non-Gaussian ocean surfaces at near grazing incidence. Even though the scattering mechanisms at moderate incidence angles are relatively well understood, the same is not true for near grazing rough surface scattering. However, from the experimental ocean scattering data, it has been observed that the backscattering cross section of a horizontally polarized wave can be as large as the vertical counterpart at near grazing incidence. In addition, these returns are highly intermittent in time. There have been some suggestions that these unexpected effects may come from shadowing or feature scattering. Using numerical scattering simulations, it can be shown that the horizontal backscattering cannot be larger than the vertical one for the Gaussian surfaces. Our main objective of this study is to gain a clear understanding of scattering mechanisms underlying the near grazing ocean scattering. In order to evaluate the backscattering cross section from ocean surfaces at near grazing incidence, both the hydrodynamic modeling of ocean surfaces and an accurate near grazing scattering theory are required. For the surface modeling, we generate Gaussian surfaces from the ocean surface power spectrum which is derived using several experimental data. Then, weakly nonlinear large scale ocean surfaces are generated following Longuet-Higgins. In addition, the modulation of small waves by large waves is included using the conservation of wave action. For surface scattering, we use MOM (Method of Moments) to calculate the backscattering from scattering patches with the two scale shadowing approximation. The differences between Gaussian and non-Gaussian surface scattering at near grazing incidence are presented.
Document ID
19940015965
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Kim, Yunjin
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Rodriguez, Ernesto
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1993
Publication Information
Publication: gress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS)
Subject Category
Oceanography
Accession Number
94N20438
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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