Optical modeling of microwave scattering from objects buried in dielectric media with rough surfaces

If the presence of a buried reflecting plane would enhance or reduce the radar response from a rough interface, still remains not completely understood. Real experiments with airborne ground-penetrating radar are so expensive and complicated that a comprehensive experimental study of microwave scattering from various underground targets in controlled conditions is practically impossible. Under these circumstances optical modeling of microwave scattering processes could take on great significance. Its validity is based on the fact that, according to the general theory of similarity in electrodynamics, all solutions of a wave equation for different frequencies are identical if the geometric and electrodynamic parameters are re-scaled in such a way that all ratios a_i/λ (a_i are characteristic geometrical sizes, λ the wavelength) and the complex dielectric constant remains the same. The authors present two optical models of microwave remote sensing processes: (i) scattering from a plane perfectly reflecting object buried in a soil with rough surface, (ii) reflection from soils with different moisture contents