Bistatic radar scattering from an ocean surface at L-band

This paper presents a numerical analysis for bistatic scattering from the sea surface at L-band. The unifying scattering model Small Slope Approximation (SSA) of the first order is applied to calculate normalized bistatic cross section (NBCS) of the ocean surface. The calculations were made by assuming the surface-height spectrum of Elfouhaily et al. The correlation function based on this spectrum is calculated. The negative region participation in surface scattering which is function of the incident angle, the wind speed and the exploring wavelength is discussed. A comparison between SSA and geometric optics models shows that the last one is generally not accurate at L-band especially at large angles of incidences. Numerical results examine the wind dependency over a wide range of incident angles along the specular direction and in the forward scattering configuration. In addition, the NBCS behavior in fully bistatic configuration is predicted. Numerical results are obtained as a function of wind speed, incident/scattering angles and polarization states.