Monte Carlo simulations of large-scale one-dimensional random rough-surface scattering at near-grazing incidence: Penetrable case

Scattering from dielectric one-dimensional (1-D) random rough surfaces at near grazing incidence is studied for both TE and TM cases. To obtain accurate results at incidence angles of 80/spl deg/-85/spl deg/, we use long surface lengths of up to 1000 wavelengths. Numerical results are illustrated for dielectric surfaces corresponding to soil surfaces with various moisture contents. Results indicate that TM backscattering is much larger than that of TE backscattering. The ratio of TM to TE backscattering increases as a function of soil moisture and can be used as an indicator of soil moisture in remote sensing applications. However, the ratio of TM to TE backscattering is much lower than that predicted by the small perturbation method. To facilitate computation of scattering by such long surfaces, the previously developed banded-matrix iteration approach/canonical grid method (BMIA/CG) has been extended to dielectric surfaces. The numerical algorithm consists of translating the nonnear-field interaction to a flat surface and the interaction subsequently calculated by fast Fourier transform (FFT).