Summary of Available Scattering Methods

Abstract

In Chapter 3, we provided a descriptive introduction to the physics of scattering (physical modelling) and the statistics of scattered signals (mathematical modelling). In the last part of that chapter we also discussed the problem of using different approximations in the scattering model with regard to the accuracy of the prediction of scattering. In this chapter, we present an overview of the available scattering methods used to calculate the scattering cross section in random media. We consider two types of scattering: (a) surface scattering and (b) volume scattering. The major difference between the two is the depth of penetration into the medium. For surfaces of lossy media (such as wet soil), the scattering originates at the surfaces and the volume effects are usually ignored. For volume scattering media, such as vegetation and snow cover, the penetration may be significant and scattering within the volume may become the dominant scatter contribution.