Microwave effective permittivity model of media of dielectric particles and applications to dry and wet snow

The study of the propagation of electromagnetic waves in media consisting of discrete scatterers is important both in general terms and in practical application. To solve the inverse problem of remote sensing we need an electrodynamic model of snow that relates its electrodynamic characteristics to the physical snow cover parameters. Several dielectric models have been previously proposed to explain the permittivity of mixtures from the known dielectric constant and volume fractions of the constituents. However, the scattering losses are not incorporated in the effective permittivity. In this paper an attempt is made to incorporate the scattering losses in the effective permittivity of the medium consisting of the discrete scatterers immersed in a host material. The results are applied to calculating the complex effective permittivity of snow