Some considerations in remote sensing of rain by polarization diversity radars

The author investigates the coherency matrix measurement for polarization scanning, with emphasis on propagation effects in precipitation media. An analytical description of propagation effects for partially polarized backscatter, using linear polarization as a basis is developed. A comparison is made with a formulation based on circular polarization. For this comparison, and for verifying the analytical models, consecutive radar polarimetric measurements at scanning linear polarization, on the rainstorm described here and on other forms of precipitation are examined.<>