Cross-polarized power returned from a random surface: application to the rough sea surface

Summarizes the scattering properties of a rough surface as a function of observation parameters, physic and geometric characteristics of the surface. This study is applied to the oceanic surface. Results are presented in the form of polarimetric signature as a function of the transmitter location and receiver location for a bistatic radio-link over the rough sea surface. The like- and cross-polarized received power are directly calculated using the scattering coefficients, without calculating the Mueller matrix. The Kirchhoff model and the small perturbation method are applied to determine the scattering coefficients. The polarization states, obtained for the minima and maxima received power in order to increase the performance of a bistatic radio-link, or to improve the discrimination power of a radar target are investigated. It is observed that for a fixed transmitter location and receiver location it is possible to choose a polarization state minimizing the scattered power from a rough sea surface, independently of the sea state. An electromagnetic wave scattered from a target is a vectorial quantity containing polarimetric information. This information is a function of the target, and also depends on the observation parameters. The purpose of this paper is to present, the polarimetric signature of the rough sea surface in order to increase the performance of a bistatic radio link (decreasing fading effect, for example), or to improve the discrimination power of a radar target or to identify a target