MMW Radar Scattering Statistics of Terrain At Near Grazing Incidence

The statistical behavior of clutter observed near grazing incidence and at 95 GHz is investigated for the specific cases of bare ground, snow-cover, and for a heterogeneous scene. The bare ground constitutes a homogeneous target under homogeneous conditions and the magnitude of the amplitude is Rayleigh distributed. While the snow-cover is a homogeneous target, the conditions under which it was observed are heterogeneous, and the Bayes rule is employed to describe its clutter distribution. The Bayes rule integrates variations due to signal fading with the underlying variations in the backscattering coefficient associated with the heterogeneity. The heterogeneous scene is also successfully described with the Bayes rule. This work was supported by Contract QK 8820 with Lockheed Sanders Inc., as part of the Army Research Laboratory’s Federated Laboratory Advanced Sensors Project. 1