| In the past, the comparison of theoretical and experimental scattering results from random surfaces have usually been clouded by the uncertainty in the statistical description of the targets. Also, for targets in which ground truth information was gathered, the statistical parameters of the target could not be guaranteed to fall within a desired region. A method of building rough surface targets from computer generated grids was employed to allow the pre-selection of surface parameters in the testing of specific frequency behaviors of developing theoretical models. These surface targets were machined from foam blocks and coated with a conductive paint to insure only surface scattering mechanisms in the signal-target interaction. The conducting surface target descriptions fully characterize the electrical and geometrical parameters needed for model inputs, and provide the ability for repeatable measurements in a controlled indoor chamber environment.;Monostatic and bistatic scattering measurements of the surface targets are included to test the intermediate frequency region of the Integral Equation Model (IEM), which covers the cases that fall between the high and low frequency models of the past. The experimental data format also enables the use of a holographic imaging algorithm to analyze the quality of data and further process the scattering results. The agreement of the measured results and theoretical predictions is demonstrated for the like-polarized monostatic and the polarimetric bistatic configurations. It is also determined that for configurations such as the cross-polarized monostatic case, where second- and higher-order scattering mechanisms are dominant, the measurements are very difficult and somewhat unreliable. The measurement errors caused by the background disturbance of the surface targets and the target-chamber interactions can mask the higher order mechanisms of the surface scattering. |
