Characterization of Rough Fractal Surfaces from Backscattered Radar Data

Abstract

In this paper the scattering of electromagnetic (EM) waves, emitted by a monostatic radar, from rough fractal surfaces is examined by using the Kirchhoff approximation. Of particular interest here is the way that the level of roughness of the fractal surface affects the backscattered EM wave captured by a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and whether the roughness of the surface can be estimated from these SAR radar measurements. More specifically, the scattering coefficient of the backscattered signal is calculated for a number of radar frequencies and for different values of the surface fractal dimension. It is found here that the slopes between the main lobe and the first sidelobes emerging in the backscattering coefficient as a function of the wavenumber of the incident EM waves increase with the surface fractal dimension. Therefore, we conclude in this paper that the magnitude of the above slopes provides a reliable method for the classification of the rough fractal surfaces. Applications of the proposed method can be found, for example, in the characterization of the sea state from measured SAR radar data.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eie.22.6.17226