Statistical properties of the sea scattered radar return

To investigate the scattering of microwave radiation from the wind roughened sea we constructed a unique radar system and conducted an extensive data gathering experiment. Over 3500 hours of data were collected at 2, 3.05, 5.3, 10.02, and 14 GHz and at a variety of wind speeds, relative azimuth, and incidence angles.; A simple model based on the current composite model is developed and incorporated into a simulation scheme which is used to evaluate the validity of the composite model in regards to mid-incidence angle microwave scattering. The power distributions and the velocity distributions from the simulations are compared to the empirical data in order to test the validity of the composite model. It is found that the composite model accurately predicts the qualitative behavior of the radar return for incidence angles between 30 and 50 degrees, but that other scattering mechanisms begin to influence the return at 20 and 60 degrees.; These results suggest that the postulated "missing" scatterers (scatterers not included in the composite model) do not contribute significantly to the total radar cross section for incidence angles from 30 to 50 degrees. We conclude that further progress on theoretically based scattering models must include a deeper understanding of Bragg scattering mechanisms.