Electromagnetic scattering from a continuously inhomogeneous random medium with cylindrical symmetry

Abstract

Born's approximation is used to determine the mean value of the turbulent radar cross section (RCS) of an inhomogeneous cylindrical random medium at oblique incidence. The mean medium is taken into account by a renormalization procedure. Then, only the diffraction due to the fluctuating part of the permittivity has to be considered. The fluctuations are approximated by means of the turbulence spectrum given by Kolgomorov's theory. Furthermore, Maxwell's equations are solved in terms of fields rather than potentials. This leads us to a significant reduction of the linear system size which simplifies numerical calculations. It turns out that the fields which propagate in the mean medium are noticeably modified by that medium. Thus, the renormalization has a considerable effect on the assessment of the turbulent RCS of the wake. The influence of the direction of incidence on the RCS levels is also analysed. Finally, numerical results are given in order to compare calculations with experiment.