Travel time and intensity statistics of the pulsed signals backscattered by a rough surface [geophysical remote-sensing applications]

Two-way travel times of waves scattered at a rough surface contain important information about the physical properties of the scattering boundaries and the intervening medium. Precise measurements of the travel times, and especially those of the first (i.e. earliest) arrivals, underlie a number of geophysical remote-sensing techniques that employ GPS signals, radars, and lidars as well as acoustic and seismic waves. In this paper, we address, in the geometrical optics limit, the challenging problem of the statistical properties of the travel times and intensity of the first and second arrivals.