Amplitude and phase distributions for bistatic scattering from Pierson-Moskowitz sea surfaces

In this paper we study the statistical distributions of bistatic scattering from Pierson-Moskowitz sea surfaces. The Monte Carlo simulation method is applied and the Maxwellpsilas equations are solved numerically using the Banded Matrix Iterative Approach. By assuming normal-distributed and correlated real and imaginary scattering components, we derive analytical probability density functions (pdfs) for the amplitude and phase. The amplitude pdf is in the form of an infinite sum of modified Bessel functions while the phase pdf is expressed in terms of the error function. Results show that the amplitude and phase pdfs vary with wind speed, observation angle, and polarization. TM wave has a wider amplitude distribution than the TE wave. The phase of scattered field from sea surface is not uniformly distributed, especially at low wind speed. The analytical pdf models are in good agreement with empirical distributions.