Microwave coherent propagation in cylindrical-shaped forest components: interpretation of attenuation observations

A theory of the coherent field propagation is presented to explain attenuation observations previously obtained at X-band through various forest components. On the basis of the Foldy-Lax approximation, a polarimetric loss factor model for a sparse medium is developed. This model accounts for both observation parameters and vegetation characteristics, including the scatterer orientation distributions. The model is valid for any scatterer shape, but for comparison purposes only the cylindrical shape is considered. The forest components, such as bare twigs and leafy coniferous branches are represented as dielectric, homogeneous, infinite-circular cylinders characterized by their dielectric properties, dimensions, number density, and orientation probability density functions. For the model-experiment comparison, the infinite-circular cylinder scattering function is incorporated into the model