Radar Volume Backscatter from Spatially Extended Geophysical Targets in "Slice" Approach

Assessment of the radar backscatter from spatially extended geophysical target (SEGT) is under consideration. The SEGT is any geophysical object which is, at least, semi transparent for radar illumination (cloud, rain, snowfall of the atmosphere, thick snow cover of a terrain). It consists of a multitude of point Rayleigh scatterers. The "slice" approach is applied, it means that particles located close to the wave front of the radar illumination produce the backscatter mainly coherently. This approach allows describing the contribution of the microphysical parameters of the scattering media to volume component of the radar cross section (RCS) more comprehensively then the incoherent approach. Known result of the incoherent approach based on summation of RCS from each scatterer takes place in particular case when the fluctuation of particle number within slices is pertaining to the Poisson law.