Optimum polarizations in the bistatic scattering from layered random media

Investigates the polarimetric bistatic scattering characteristics of layered random media. On applying the Born approximation, the authors have calculated the bistatic Mueller matrix of a half-space random medium. The power received by a receiving antenna is the quantity chosen to optimize. The variables of the problem are the polarizations of the transmitting and receiving antennas. For the case when the polarizations of the transmitting and receiving antennas are identical, the authors have calculated the optimum polarizations and they have found that the optimum polarizations include both linear and elliptical polarizations. The conditions for maximum and minimum received power are also obtained. In the backscattering case, they have considered the situation when the transmitting and receiving antennas have independent polarizations. For a two-layer problem, they have observed the influence of the thickness of the layer in the classification of the optimum polarizations