Surface Roughness, Optical Shadowing, and Radar Backscatter;

The topography of natural surfaces at scales of a few meters or less is commonly referred to as roughness. These variations in height and slope, their magnitude, and the changes in structure as a function of scale length are of fundamental importance to interpretation of geologic emplacement regimes and subsequent modification. For most planetary studies and many terrestrial situations, no in situ observations of the ground are available, and remote sensing data are used to infer the nature of the terrain. For optical, infrared, and microwave measurements, surface roughness and its scale-dependence have a large impact on the brightness, polarization, angular scattering properties, and wavelength-dependence of reflected energy. The link between surface roughness and specific remote sensing properties for many types of observations, however, remains elusive. We focus here on the nature of roughness and its scale-dependence for terrestrial rocky surfaces, and the effect of such changes on optical shadowing and radar backscatter.