Tomographic SAR data analysis based on three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations of Maxwell´s equations

In this paper, a coherent scattering model for natural media based on a Monte Carlo simulation of scattering from randomly distributed discrete spheroids is developed. The electromagnetic scattering problem is formulated with the electric field volume integral equation and solved by means of the method of moments with electrostatic basis functions. The model simulates the fields scattered by the medium for each of the realization of spheroid configurations generated using Metropolis shuffling method. The scattering model is then deployed to simulate polarimetric multi-baseline synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. These data are afterwards processed to reconstruct the vertical profile of the polarimetric reflectivity density. The reflectivity density statistics are acquired via a Monte Carlo simulation over a large number of realizations. Using a P-band tomographic radar configuration, we first analyze the vertical profile of the polarimetric reflectivity density. Then we investigate the influence of spheroid concentration as well as the impact of electromagnetic coupling between scatterers on the reflectivity density.