Statistical electromagnetic theories and applications: A review of recent advances

Statistical Electromagnetic Theories have been developed over many years and applied to a wide range of practical problems in remote sensing of geophysical media, biological media, medical optics, ultrasound imaging and object detection and communication in clutter. This paper gives a review of recent developments in applications of statistical wave theories. The super resolution of images occurs in random media due to the multiple scattering and the increase of apparent aperture size of the transmitter. Another interesting effect is that the scattered wave from multiple scattering remembers the direction of the incident wave and strong correlations can be observed under certain conditions. This is called the “Memory Effect”. Recent study shows that under certain conditions, the angular and frequency correlations of the scattered wave can be enhanced or reduced and this effect can be used to reduce the clutter from the rough surface. It is also noted that the coherence in multiple scattering causes the increase of radar cross sections in turbulence due to the interference between the forward and backward waves, called the “double passage effect”. This is related to the Anderson localization and the coherent backscattering.