Scattering cross sections for composite rough surfaces using the unified full wave approach

The full wave approach is used to derive a unified formulation for the like and cross polarized scattering cross sections of composite rough surfaces for all angles of incidence. Earlier solutions for electromagnetic scattering by composite random rough surfaces are based on two-scale models of the rough surface. Thus, on applying a hybrid approach physical optics theory is used to account for specular scattering associated with a filtered surface (consisting of the large sonic spectral components of the surface) while perturbation theory is used to account for Bragg scattering associated with the surface consisting of the small scale spectral components. Since the full wave approach accounts for both specular point scattering and Bragg scattering in a self-consistent manner, the two-scale model of the rough surface is not adopted in this work. These unified full wave solutions are compared with the earlier solutions and the simplifying assumptions that are common to all the earlier solutions are examined. It is shown that while the full wave solutions for the like polarized scattering cross sections based on the two-scale model are in reasonably good agreement with the unified full wave solutions, the two solutions for the cross polarized cross sections differ very significantly.