Modeling Bistatic Coherent Scattering From Multilayered Rough Surface Using Its Effective Dielectric Constant at P- and L-Bands

This article proposes a closed-form asymptotic solution for the bistatic coherent scattering of a multilayered rough surface structure based upon its effective dielectric constant (EDC) in specular direction. The EDC is modeled by establishing an equivalence of the coherent scattering between the multilayered rough surface structure and a half-space homogeneous medium. The scattering solution is then solved using the scalar Kirchhoff approximation (SKA) method. This new method is referred to as the SKA-EDC method, and it is applied to analyze the sensitivity of the EDC and coherent reflectivity to bare soils with realistic parameters at P- and L-bands. The result indicates that EDC can give different responses to the soil moisture variations with respect to the coherent reflectivity, enabling the potentials of root-zone soil moisture retrieval. At incidence angle smaller than 35 degrees, EDC gives the same value for both polarizations, and the coherent reflectivity can show a significant response to soil at depths <15-50 cm at 0.80 GHz and <5-15 cm at 1.57 GHz, depending on soil moisture. The simulation also demonstrates that subsurface roughness has a trivial effect on the EDC and coherent reflectivity for three rough surfaces separated by continuously dielectric profiles. Subsurface can, thus, be assumed to be flat for reducing uncertainty in soil moisture inversion algorithms when the subsurface roughness is unknown.

Automated summary

This article proposes a closed-form asymptotic solution for the bistatic coherent scattering of a multilayered rough surface structure based upon its effective dielectric constant (EDC) in specular direction. The solution is obtained using the scalar Kirchhoff approximation (SKA) method. The study shows that the EDC and coherent reflectivity have different responses to soil moisture variations, indicating their potential for root-zone soil moisture retrieval. The simulation also demonstrates that subsurface roughness has a trivial effect on the EDC and coherent reflectivity for rough surfaces separated by continuous dielectric profiles.